This Affordable Mass Transit Technology Is Now Illegal in Tennessee

The people of Tennessee have the Koch Brothers to thank.

Nashville was poised to become the proud owner of a new BRT line, called Amp. The concept has proved an overwhelming success in a number of cities abroad—Curitaba, Brazil, is maybe the most famous, but there are prominent lines in China, Argentina, and South Korea, as well as right here in the states, in Kansas City and New York.

The mayor of Nashville had secured plans to create a $175 million BRT system to increase citizen mobility and help thwart congestion as the city's population swelled. That might sound expensive, but for a transit project in a major city, it's a bargain—especially since BRT has repeatedly shown it stimulates economies and reduces pollution.

But even this relatively elegant transit solution attracted the ire of powerful interests that find public transit distasteful. Spurred on by the Koch brothers' influential political organization, Americans for Prosperity, Tennessee's state legislature has succeeded in passing an extraordinary new law that actually bans BRT.

The Koch's believe that mass transit only helps the poor get to their minimum wage jobs without buying Koch brother's gasoline.

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