How long must taxpayers be forced to throw money at a failed plan before something is done about it? For the Maricopa Association of Governments’ (MAG) regional transportation plan—which for two decades spent billions on light-rail and other wasteful “active transportation” projects and has primed the pump for another twenty years of boondoggle spending—The Club hopes the answer is not much longer.
Since 2004, local governments through MAG have siphoned more and more funding from a transportation tax to build white elephant transit projects throughout Maricopa County. Yet MAG won’t budge from its broken plan despite collapsed ridership, worsened congestion, and ballooning costs – for projects that don’t match how people actually travel.
The good news is that with the next statutory transportation audit coming due July 2026, lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) will have an opportunity to weigh in on the MAG plan and provide recommendations for change.
State law requires that these five-year audits evaluate several elements of the MAG plan, including transit service, costs, ridership, congestion, and mobility. While previous audits flagged some deficiencies, they lacked any concrete performance metrics, and on a few occasions were prepared by a firm tied to MAG (a conflict of interest). So, to further bolster the JLAC process, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club brought in a nationally recognized transportation expert to conduct an audit of the plan. The result: MAG’s plan is failing and needs a major overhaul.
Costs Are Sky-High and Rising
Previous audits narrowly reviewed costs within agency budgets, not whether investments were wise. Our audit applied business metrics such as operating cost per revenue mile, capital cost per route mile, and total cost per passenger-mile to light rail.
These tell a clear story; costs have always been high but they’re now out of control.
- The initial light-rail line cost $75 million per mile; recent extensions have topped $250 million, with the Capitol extension likely exceeding $350 million per mile.
- Ridership per route mile dropped 24% since 2014 even as driving increased.
- Post-COVID, inflation-adjusted operating costs rose sharply for both bus and rail, with administration costs rising even faster.
- Transit eats 25–30% of regional transportation funds but serves <2% of commuters. Those dollars could fund scalable bus networks instead.
Ridership is Low and Not Recovering
Transit isn’t just expensive—it’s irrelevant. Though prior audits looked at projected and actual boardings, they fail to dig any deeper. Better measures consider transit’s share of commuter miles and job access. And the results aren’t good:
- By 2019, travelers traveled 165 auto miles for every transit mile.
- Even among car-less households, 88% still chose not to commute by transit in 2023.
- Bus ridership grew 7% annually from 1998–2008, but after rail opened in late 2008, combined bus plus rail ridership fell 7% (2009–2019) despite 39% more rail miles.
- Rail serves downtown and ASU, while 98% of jobs are in dispersed edge-city centers it largely ignores.
Congestion & Mobility is Worsening
MAG’s plan also fails on congestion and mobility, though these metrics are vague in statute. Our audit uses job access within travel time and congestion delay by hours annually.
- Annual commuter delays grew faster after light rail: 1.1% annually pre-rail, 2.2% post-rail. COVID briefly paused the trend but now it is back to its pre-COVID trajectory.
- In 2015 a 10-minute auto trip reaches 354 times more jobs than transit; by 2022, that’s increased to 373 times.
- For trips up to 50 minutes, bicycles outperform transit in job access.
Billions have been spent on projects promised to reduce congestion, yet drivers sit in more traffic.
An “Active Transportation” Slush Fund
MAG wastes tens of millions on projects like pedestrian bridges and walking paths that should be local responsibilities, not regional priorities.
Perhaps the most egregious is a $30M pedestrian bridge over Rio Salado on 3rd Street, just three blocks away from an existing bridge on Central Ave. Yet it accounts for about one fifth of the active transportation budget. It connects nothing meaningful and if Mayor Gallegos wants it, Phoenix should pay for it.
Lawmakers: Audit Hard, Reset the Plan, Redirect the Money
For two decades, MAG promised rail would reduce congestion, improve mobility, and meet demand. It hasn’t. And lawmakers should act accordingly by:
First, by directing the 2026 audit to apply clear, outcome-based metrics so that MAG actually has to make a business case for the projects they’ve proposed.
If they do this the results will be predictable. They’ll show, as our audit did, that MAG’s plan is broken and needs to be fixed.
The Legislature should require reform, including stricter guardrails and statutory metrics to actually gauge performance of these systems and projects. They could shift funding toward better-designed bus networks and ridesharing services that meet real travel patterns and eliminate local “active transportation” projects or at the very least redirect them toward better projects – not bridges to nowhere.
An honest, independent audit will document MAG’s failures. Lawmakers should use that evidence to end outdated, costly plans and redirect billions toward projects people actually use.
Link to our independent MAG plan audit here: https://azfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MAG-Transportation-Audit-2025_R4_Digital_FINAL.pdf
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