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Originally Posted by the urban politician
^ I gather the Chicago area could accomplish some portion of an equivalent if the CTA/Metra/Pace management were folded together under the RTA umbrella, and if the Governor somehow also put the Chicago area tollways under the RTA's control
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In theory, yes, but acheiving those includes a million little what-ifs along the way. I'd disagree with Taft that NYC's political culture is significantly less dysfunctional than ours (to wit: the City's recent humiliating failure in passing congestion pricing). New York has the MTA for a million reasons, and many of them are beyond the technically superior solution to regional infrastructure, involving rather personal idiosyncracies (e.g. Rockefeller v. Moses, Moses' prior leadership and development of the toll bridge cash cows under the Triborough umbrella, etc.).
Of course, all of the above does come down to New York having had several political leaders who could seriously get things done, working tirelessly and intelligently towards achieving their aims: Not only Rockefeller and Moses, but also LaGuardia, FDRoosevelt, & Al Smith, to name a few.
In fairness, Chicago has been "blessed" with two Daleys who could get things done in a serious way - but we've generally not benefited from the same sort of leadership in Springfield (either in the assemblies or the governor's mansion) as NYC has from Albany. Part of that is chance, part is geography, and part is demographics, with Chicago having a smaller percentage of our state's population than NYC has in New York.
It's an interesting topic, and I won't ramble any further so as not to threadjack. But I can recommend a reading list for those interested.