The Wall Street Journal’s April 30 opinion piece, “The New Earmarkers: Cost Analysis for Transit Projects Gives Way to ‘Social Equity’”, demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Federal Transit Administration evaluates proposed transit projects under its New Starts grant program.  The piece implies that proposed rules issued earlier this year would “do away with … comparative cost analysis” and would instead give more weight in the evaluation process to “social equity and environmental considerations.”  This assertion is wrong on both counts.