Normanites addressed the Oklahoma City Metro area’s lack of public transportation at the University of Oklahoma Undergraduate Congress Tuesday night in Adams Hall.

Eric Pollard of the Norman Sustainability Network and OnTrac, an organization focusing on transportation opportunities for Oklahoma, said the state has a terrible record concerning public transportation.

“Oklahoma City ranks 50th out of the 50 biggest cities in the country. It’s dead last,” he said.

Pollard said the Interstate Highway 40 Crosstown Expressway is scheduled to be relocated through the Oklahoma City Union Station rail yard. If the project is completed as planned, it would destroy any viability of establishing a modern rail transit system for central Oklahoma without having to spend millions of dollars rebuilding infrastructure in the future, he said.

“With the potential for $5 gas, not all of us are going to be able to drive our cars around Oklahoma City,” Pollard said.

He said Oklahoma’s leaders should follow the example set by other major American cities like Dallas and Salt Lake City, who have established popular and environmentally friendly transit systems.

“We can spend $200 million now to save Union Station so it can be viable in the future, or we can spend $500 million to rebuild it in 15 years,” he said.

Frank Wood, zoology and biomedical sciences senior and member of Undergraduate Congress, said he strongly favors saving the Union Station rail yard.

“I would absolutely use it. I think a link between Norman and Oklahoma City would be great, especially if we could also go distant places with the prices of gas going up,” he said. “Sure, we need to rebuild I-40, but we also need to do it in a way that we save Union Station.”

Brett Stidham, international business sophomore and member of Undergraduate Congress, also said that a high quality public transit system would be incredibly beneficial to the Oklahoma City metro area, especially with the city’s lack of emphasis on public transportation.

“A light rail system would be more environmentally friendly,” he said. “It would also be an incentive for more corporations to come to the Oklahoma City area, and they would see that we’re moving along technologically. I think it’s important that we do develop systems like those that other states have.”

Many lawmakers are lending their support to save Union Station. Recently, the Norman City Council unanimously passed a resolution requesting that Gov. Brad Henry consider future rail transit options rather than destroying our current infrastructure.

Additionally, the Norman League of Women Voters said that while other metropolitan areas benefit from modern transit systems, central Oklahoma is tying its future to asphalt, concrete and the automobile, despite the necessity for quality public transportation.

Eric Pollard emphasized this project would take a substantial amount of work, but it would greatly benefit the state.

“Many cities with smaller populations have installed great transit systems,” he said. “All it takes is the political will.”