Last week, Smart Growth America’s President and CEO Geoff Anderson spoke with Jim Engster of Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s WRKF FM about smart growth strategies in Lousiana and across the country. Tonight Anderson will speak in Baton Rouge as a guest of Smart Growth America’s coalition partner the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX). Anderson will speak about how economic development, fiscal conservatism, and smart growth as a great benefit to business owners, community leaders and residents. Find out more about tonight’s event here, and read an excerpted transcript or listen to the full audio of Anderson’s interview with WRKF using the player below.

WRKF: In Baton Rouge we have a vote coming in a few weeks, April 25, a measure to preserve the bus system in this area. What’s your take on whether or not a public bus system is a necessity or not for a city the size of Baton Rouge?
GEOFF ANDERSON: I think that there’s a common myth out there that public transportation is all about big cities. And of course we have a good system here in Washington. But in fact in a lot of those smaller towns and cities around the country public transportation is even more important because often we find that people are using those systems to get to their jobs, to participate in the economy. It’s the thing that’s getting a lot of people in rural places to their medical appointments, it’s the only option they have. And with the volatility that we’re seeing in energy prices, in gas prices, we’ve seen a lot of pain in different communities as people are trying to control their household costs and figure out a way to avoid paying high gas prices this is what they’re turning to. We’re seeing public transportation ridership at all time highs, and certainly a lot of fiscal pressure on those systems. But if you want to keep people employed in the economy and you want to keep them as active participants in the workforce and not end up paying costs that are associated with having people be unemployed, this is a great way to do it.