Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T08:32:42.352Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Implications of Political Trust for Supporting Public Transport

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2021

JAE YOUNG LIM Open the ORCID record for JAE YOUNG LIM [Opens in a new window]  and
KUK-KYOUNG MOON
JAE YOUNG LIM
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Division of Public Administration and Social Welfare, Chosun University 309 Pilmundae-ro Dong-gu, Gwangju61452, Korea, email: [email protected]
KUK-KYOUNG MOON
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Inha University 100 Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon22212, Korea, email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Despite the importance of public transport for urban vitality, social equity, and mobility, the discussions surrounding these topics have become heated ideological battles between liberals and conservatives in the United States, as in other countries. Conservatives, in particular, have exhibited anti-transit attitudes that have worked against the development of public transport.

Scholars note that political trust functions as a heuristic and its impact is felt more strongly among individuals who face ideological risks with respect to a given public policy. Based on several studies noting the relationships between political trust, ideology and policy attitudes, the study employs the pooled data of the 2010 and 2014 General Social Surveys. It finds that conservatives are negatively associated with supporting spending on public transport, but when contingent upon high levels of political trust, they become more supportive of it. The study discusses the potential of political trust as a mechanism to influence public policy discourses as well as certain methodological and substantive limitations.

Keywords

political trustideologyriskconservativespublic transport
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 77 - 95
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, H. (2013), ‘Bus Reform in Seoul, Republic of Korea’, Global Report on Human Settlements 2013, http://www.unhabitat.org/grhs/2013 [accessed 15 November 2019].Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. and Flint, J. (2004), ‘Fortress UK? Gated communities, the spatial revolt of the elites and time-space trajectories of segregation’, Housing Studies, 19, 875–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Badger, E. (2019), ‘How the Rural-Urban Divide Became America’s Political Fault Line’, The New York Times, 21 May., https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/upshot/america-political-divide-urban-rural.html [accessed 10 October 2019].Google Scholar
Bhatta, S. and Drennan, M. (2003), ‘The economic benefits of public investment in transportation: A review of recent literature’, Journal of Planning Education and Research, 22, 288–296.Google Scholar
Bliss, L. (2019), ‘What’s Next for Phoenix’s Light Rail?’, CitiLab, 8 August., https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/phoenix-light-rail-expansion-vote-prop-105-public-transit/595624/ [assessed 10 October 2019].Google Scholar
Capps, K. (2018), ‘Nashville’s Transit Plan Just Got Trounced’, CitiLab, 2 May., https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/05/what-went-wrong-with-nashvilles-transit-plan/559436/ [accessed 11 October 2019].Google Scholar
Caro, R. (1974), The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Chanley, V., Rudolph, T. and Rahn, W. (2000), ‘The origins and consequences of public trust in government’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 64, 3, 239–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Citrin, J. (1974), ‘Comment: The political relevance of trust in government’, American Political Science Review, 68, 3, 973-88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conn, S. (2014), Americans against the City: anti-urbanism in the twentieth century. Oxford University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Cooper, C., Knotts, H. and Brennan, K. (2008), ‘The importance of trust in government for public administration: The case of zoning’, Public Administration Review, 68, 3, 459–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craver, J. (2018), ‘Why Did Conservatives Become Anti-Transit and Anti-Bike?’, Medium, 23 January., https://medium.com/jackcraver/why-did-conservatives-become-anti-transit-and-anti-bike-a88a676b1e74 [accessed 13 October 2019].Google Scholar
Dargay, J. and Gately, D. (1999), ‘Income’s effect on car and vehicle ownership, worldwide: 1960-2015’, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 33, 2, 101–138.Google Scholar
Davis-Young, K. (2019), ‘Will America’s ‘Least Sustainable City’ Vote to Kill Rail Transit?’, The Washington Post, 25 August., https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/will-americas-least-sustainable-city-vote-to-kill-rail-transit/2019/08/24/6a66a912-c455-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html [accessed 16 October 2019].Google Scholar
De Maesschalck, F. (2009), ‘Beyond the Anglo-Saxon experience: City-suburban political polarization in Brussels, Belgium’, Espace Populations Sociétés, 2009/2, 319–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Maesschalck, F. (2011), ‘The politicisation of suburbanisation in Belgium: Towards an urban-suburban divide’, Urban Studies, 48, 4, 699–717.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Economist, The. (2018), ‘Public Transport Is in Decline in Many Wealthy Cities’, The Economist, 21 June., https://www.economist.com/international/2018/06/21/public-transport-is-in-decline-in-many-wealthy-cities [accessed 5 February 2019].Google Scholar
Fairbrother, M. (2016), ‘Trust and public support for environmental protection in diverse national contexts’, Sociological Science, 3, 359–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, J. (2018), ‘Mass Transit in the Sunbelt’, The American Prospect, 1 November., https://prospect.org/power/mass-transit-sun-belt/ [accessed 6 November 2019].Google Scholar
Florida, R. (2017), The New Urban Crisis: how our cities are increasing inequality, deepening segregation, and failing the middle class and what we can do about it? New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Fullerton, A. and Dixon, J. (2010), ‘Generational conflict or methodological artifact? Reconsidering the relationship between age and policy attitudes in the U.S., 1984-2008’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 74, 4, 643–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, E., Kahn, M. and Rappaport, J. (2008), ‘Why do the poor live in cities? The role of public transportation’, Journal of Urban Economics, 63, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Global Infrastructure Hub. (2017), ‘Global Infrastructure Outlook’, https://outlook.gihub.org/ [assessed 5 June 2020].Google Scholar
Gordon, A. (2018), New York city’s self-Induced transportation crisis, Citylab, 12 December.Google Scholar
Hansla, A., Hysing, E., Nilsson, A. and Martinsson, J. (2017), ‘Explaining voting behavior in the Gothenburg congestion tax referendum’, Transport Policy, 53, 98–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harring, N. (2013), ‘Understanding the effects of corruption and political trust on willingness to make economic sacrifices for environmental protection in a cross-national perspective’, Social Science Quarterly, 94, 3, 660–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harring, N. (2018), ‘Trust and state intervention: Results from a Swedish survey on environmental policy support’, Environmental Science and Policy, 82, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herian, M. (2014), ‘Trust in government and support for municipal services’, State and Local Government Review, 46, 2, 82–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, D. (2017), ‘Decrypting fare-free public transport in Tallinn, Estonia’, Case Studies on Transport Policy, 5, 690–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, M. (1998), ‘The political relevance of political trust’, American Political Science Review, 92, 4, 791–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, M. and Globetti, S. (2002), ‘Political trust and racial policy preferences’, American Journal of Political Science, 46, 2, 253–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, M. (2005), Why Trust Matters: declining political trust and the demise of American liberalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hetherington, M. and Rudolph, T. (2008), ‘Priming, performance, and the dynamics of political trust’, The Journal of Politics, 70, 2, 498–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, M. and Husser, J. (2012), ‘How trust matters: The changing political relevance of political trust’, American Journal of Political Science, 56, 2, 312–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbing, J. and Theiss-Morse, E (Eds.). (2001), What Is It About Government That Americans Dislike? New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hsieh, S. (2019), ‘Prop 105 Fails: Phoenix Voters Reject Initiative to Kill Light Rail’, Phoenix New Times, 27 August., https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-voters-reject-prop-105-to-kill-light-rail-officials-declare-11350222 [accessed 13 November 2019].Google Scholar
Hu, W. (2018), ‘Where Chicago Trounces New York: Fixing Mass Transit’, The New York Times, 18 October., https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/18/nyregion/chicago-l-train-mta-subway.html [accessed 4 March 2019].Google Scholar
Hysing, E. (2015), ‘Citizen participation or representative government- Building legitimacy for the Gothenburg congestion tax’, Transport Policy, 39, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hysing, E. and Isaksson, K. (2015), ‘Building acceptance for congestion charges- the Swedish experiences compared’, Journal of Transport Geography, 49, 52–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, K. (1985), Crabgrass Frontier: the suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jaffe, E. (2013), ‘How Utah Turned Its Unpopular Public Transit System into a Hit’, CityLab, 21 October., https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2013/10/how-utah-turned-its-unpopular-public-transit-system-hit/7298/ [accessed 11 November 2019].Google Scholar
Kanter, R. (2015), Move: putting America’s infrastructure back in the lead. W. W. New York: Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Kruse, K. (2007), White Flight: Atlanta and the making of modern conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lassiter, M. (2006), The Silent Majority. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lo, A. (2020), ‘Luxembourg makes all public transport free’, CNN, 2 March., https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/luxembourg-free-public-transport/index.html [assessed 15 July 2020].Google Scholar
Long, J. (1997), Regressions Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Marcinkiewicz, K. (2018), ‘The economy or an urban-rural divide? Explaining spatial patterns of voting behaviour in Poland’, East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 32, 4, 693–719.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGirr, L. (2002), Suburban Warriors: the origins of the new American right. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, A. (2016), ‘Heterogeneity in the preferences and pro-environmental behavior of college students: The effects of years on campus, demographics, and external factors’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 3451–3463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, A. (1974), ‘Political issues and trust in government: 1964-1970’, American Political Science Review, 68, 3, 951-72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols, L. and Cázares, F. (2011), ‘Homelessness and the mobile shelter system: Public transportation as shelter’, Journal of Social Policy, 40, 2, 333–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NORC (2017), ‘General Social Surveys, 1972-2016: Cumulative Codebook’, NORC at the University of Chicago, http://gss.norc.org/Get-Documentation [accessed 2 February 2019].Google Scholar
Passchier, N. and van der Wusten, H. (1990), ‘The electoral geography of the Netherlands in the era of mass politics, 1888-1986,’ in Johnston, R., Shelley, F., and Taylor, P. (eds.), Developments in Electoral Geography, London: Routledge, 39–59.Google Scholar
Pew Research Center. (2014), Beyond red vs. blue: The political typology, June., https://www.people-press.org/2014/06/26/the-political-typology-beyond-red-vs-blue/ [accessed 20 November 2019].Google Scholar
Popp, E. and Rudolph, T. (2011), ‘A tale of two ideologies: Explaining public support for economic interventions’, The Journal of Politics, 73, 3, 808–820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pucher, J., Park, H., Kim, M. and Song, J. (2005), ‘Public transport reforms in Seoul: Innovations motivated by funding crisis’, Journal of Public Transportation, 8, 5, 41–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudolph, T. (2009), ‘Political trust, ideology, and public support for tax cuts’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 73, 1, 144–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudolph, T. and Evans, J. (2005), ‘Political trust, ideology, and public support for government spending’, American Journal of Political Science, 49, 3, 660–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudolph, T. and Popp, E. (2009), ‘Bringing the ideological divide: Trust and support for Social Security privatization’, Political Behavior, 31, 3, 331–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shermer, E. (2015), Sunbelt Capitalism: Phoenix and the transformation of American politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Shrestha, B., Millonig, A., Hounsell, N. and McDonald, M. (2017), ‘Review of public transport needs of older people in European context’, Population Ageing, 10, 343–361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrikant, A. (2018), ‘The Bus Gets a Lot of Hate. American Cities Are Trying to Change That,’ Vox, 5 November., https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/11/5/18057352/bus-stigma-public-transportation-micro-transit [accessed 20 October 2019].Google Scholar
Siddiqui, F. (2018), ‘Falling Transit Ridership Poses an ‘Emergency’ for Cities, Experts Fear’, The Washington Post, 25 March., https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/falling-transit-ridership-poses-an-emergency-for-cities-experts-fear/2018/03/20/ffb67c28-2865-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html [accessed 25 October 2019].Google Scholar
Sisson, P. (2017), ‘Perfecting Public Transportation: 10 U.S. Cities with Progressive Plans’, Curbed, 14 March., https://www.curbed.com/2017/1/24/14361030/best-cities-public-transportation-light-rail-bus [accessed 10 October 2019].Google Scholar
Skocpol, T. (1995), Social Policy in the United States: future possibilities in historical perspective. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, E. and Mayer, A. (2018), ‘A social trap for the climate? Climate action, trust and climate change risk perception in 35 countries’, Global Environmental Change, 49, 140–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soss, J. (1999), ‘Lessons of welfare: Policy design, political learning, and political action’, American Political Science Review, 93, 363–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stjernborg, V. and Mattisson, O. (2016), ‘The role of public transport in society—A case study of general policy documents in Sweden’, Sustainability, 8, 1120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stromberg, J. (2015), ‘The Real Reason American Public Transportation Is Such a Disaster’, Vox, 10 August., https://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9118199/public-transportation-subway-buses [accessed 15 October 2019].Google Scholar
Tabuchi, H. (2018), ‘How the Kock Brothers Are Killing Public Transport Projects around the Country’, The New York Times, 19 June., https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/climate/koch-brothers-public-transit.html [accessed 20 February 2019].Google Scholar
Taniguchi, H. and Marshall, G. (2018), ‘Trust, political orientation, and environmental behaviour’, Environmental Politics, 23, 3, 385–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trumm, D. (2019), ‘The Koch-Fueled Anti-Transit Crusade Hits Phoenix. Is Seattle Next?’, The Urbanist, 20 August., https://www.theurbanist.org/2019/08/20/the-koch-fueled-anti-transit-crusade-hits-phoenix-is-seattle-next/ [accessed 5 December 2019].Google Scholar
Walks, R. (2004), ‘Place of residence, party preferences, and political attitudes in Canadian cities and suburbs’, Journal of Urban Affairs, 26, 3, 269–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walks, R. (2005a), ‘The city-suburban cleavage in Canadian federal politics’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, 38, 2, 383–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walks, R. (2005b), ‘City-suburban electoral polarization in Great Britain, 1950-2001’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 4, 500–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, M. and Greenberg, M. (2018), ‘The Hudson Tunnel Project: Exploring public opinion support for public funding mechanisms for crucial infrastructure’, Case Studies on Transport Policy, 6, 265–278.Google Scholar
Weyrich, P. and Lind, W. (2009), Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation. Washington. Washington, DC: The Free Congress Foundation and Reconnecting America.Google Scholar
White, G. (2015), ‘Stranded: How America’s Failing Public Transportation Increases Inequality’, The Atlantic, 16 May., https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/stranded-how-americas-failing-public-transportation-increases-inequality/393419/ [accessed 20 October 2019].Google Scholar
Williams, R. (2016), ‘Understanding and interpreting generalized ordered logit models’, The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 40, 1, 7–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willsher, K. (2018), “I Leave the Car at Home’: How Free Buses Are Revolutionising One French City’, The Guardian,15 October., https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/15/i-leave-the-car-at-home-how-free-buses-are-revolutionising-one-french-city [accessed 20 October 2019].Google Scholar
Young, J. (2015), ‘Infrastructures: Mass Transit in 19th- and 20th-Century Urban America’, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, http://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-28 [accessed 3 March 2019].Google Scholar
Zanova, M. (2016), ‘How the Democratic and GOI Platforms Differ on Infrastructure’, The Hill, 26 July., https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/289305-how-the-democratic-and-gop-platforms-differ-on-infrastructure [accessed 15 February 2019].Google Scholar