Following up on Sarah's post
about transit funding woes in Illinois, this CNN segment from earlier
in the month brings home the effect of service cuts and fare hikes in
St. Louis. Similar scenarios are playing out all over the country.
According to the latest tally from Transportation for America, 85 transit systems serving 22 million riders are facing some combination of shrinking service and higher fares.
Thank Christ Los Angeles County passed Measure R.
The Transportation for America page is pretty insane, don't get me wrong. Transit is in a lot of trouble. However, I don't think fare hikes are the worst thing in the world. Hopefully when the economy picks back up again and tax revenues increase, the fares can be maintained and even greater service levels can be achieved.
You know Spokker, I think that every time I re-post one one of these stories off one of the other Streetsblogs. It seems unreal to me now that for a chunk of last summer I was going to vote against it.
The saddest thing about this report is that it is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, I felt CNN didn't even do the greatest job in representing just what is going to happen to millions of people. (Meanwhile last I heard nothing is happening to roads, no cutbacks there.)
Urban Review STL will not be happy about this.
How can they cover this story and not include information about how highway spending, tax breaks, and other publicly funded incentives get thrown at keeping people in cars while the bottom is falling out of the only viable means of getting around for our working classes?
"Thank Christ Los Angeles County passed Measure R."
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Thank God, Buddha, Allah, whoever, indeed.
It should be noted (again and again) that if the so-called Bus Riders "Union" had succeeded in its misguided campaign against Measure R that they'd be facing bus service costs beyond their wildest nightmare.
"How can they cover this story and not include information about how highway spending, tax breaks, and other publicly funded incentives get thrown at keeping people in cars while the bottom is falling out of the only viable means of getting around for our working classes?"
They don't want to alienate their car-loving viewers.
When people scream free markets this and free markets that and how mass transit should fund itself, I always think of the subsidies and incentives given to drivers and how it distorts consumer behavior immensely. Free parking alone is a blight on this country that the personal automobile contributes to.
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