STL Develops

Commerce Bank and Metro are bringing free public transportation to St. Louis, at least for a day. Throughout the month of October, pick up a free metro pass at any Commerce Bank location in St. Louis City, County, or the Metro East. The pass will allow use of Metrolink and Metro Bus for a whole day anytime throughout 2007. If you don’t know where to begin using Metrolink or MetroBus? Go to Metro’s home page, they have a feature called “Trip Finder,” which allows an easy search of the best way to get where you need to go, when you need to get there. Just plug in your point of origin, your destination, and departure time. “Trip Finder” will tell you how to get there and how long it will take.

Since Highway 40 will be shutting down soon, this will be a good opportunity to see how public transportation in St. Louis works. Public investment in infrastructure is critical to the growth of a city. The government choices of where to spend their infrastructure dollars will greatly affects how a city grows. The more the government spends on roads, the more citizens rely on a car for transportation, because it becomes the easiest most efficient way to travel. When the government spends money on public transportation, more people use public transportation because it becomes an easier and more convenient way to travel. Why not take this opportunity to try Metro for free? When you’re using Metro, examine how well it works. Also, think about how it could be improved. For example, where would you like to be able to use Metro to travel to. Could it be more efficient?

Maybe even think about people that rely on public transportation, because they can’t afford a car. While we certainly need roads, I think you’ll see that investment in public transportation can be a tremendous asset for most citizens and thus, the whole St. Louis Region.