Leadership Quote by Tom Barrett

Barrett is doing the politician’s version of weather reporting: pointing to a measurable external force (gas prices) to justify a policy direction that might otherwise read as ideological. By rooting “interest in mass transit” in “the increased cost of gasoline,” he reframes transit growth as inevitability, not ambition. That’s the key intent: make expansion feel like the market’s decision, not city hall’s.

The phrasing is carefully depersonalized. “It doesn’t appear” and “we’re going to see” are hedges that invite consensus and minimize risk; they also signal that the speaker is anticipating pushback from drivers, suburban voters, or fiscal hawks who treat transit as a subsidy. Barrett isn’t arguing that mass transit is morally superior or environmentally urgent. He’s arguing that people will choose it because they have to, which is a subtler, more pragmatic claim. In a country where transit can be coded as partisan or “urban,” necessity is the most bipartisan sales pitch available.

Context matters: mid-2000s to early 2010s American cities were juggling downtown revitalization, climate talk, and post-recession budget anxiety, with gasoline spikes acting as political accelerant. The subtext is coalition-building. If rising fuel costs are the culprit, then transit agencies and mayors can ask for funding, lanes, and long-term planning under the banner of demand management rather than social engineering. Barrett’s forecast isn’t just prediction; it’s permission: for taxpayers to invest, for officials to prioritize, and for skeptics to accept that the status quo is already getting more expensive.