Regional Planning

The hearings held before the New York Metropolitan Rapid Transit Commission, with a twin commission from New Jersey sitting in, renewed interest in the desirability of seeing the region's mass transportation needs whole, rather than as bits and pieces. This thought also dominated the annual meeting of the Regional Plan Association, one of our more useful civic agencies.

The central question to be decided first of all, it seems to us, is one of public policy toward the railroads. This is posed most urgently, of course, by the Long Island Rail Road. It is the question whether; and to what extent, railroads carrying commuters to and from New York City shall be subsidized.

The argument is put this way: travel on rubber is subsidized at great cost to the taxpayer; the automobile, however, creates increasing congestion, whose cost to the public in New York is put at a billion dollars a year; why subsidize and encourage this undesirable increase in travel by private car, to the detriment of the railroads which, from the standpoint of public policy, are the most economical and efficient means of mass transportation? Finally, why not subsidize the railroads?

The idea of subsidy is unpalatable. The thought of public ownership of the railroads is obnoxious. But there is no future for New York City in crowding its streets with more automobiles, either. There is the dilemma, and it is worthy of study by the best minds of our three neighboring states.