Comments on: We Have Ways of Making You Take the Bus!

By: Trouble

Trouble — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:36:22 +0000

I love how right wingers are so quick to point out new religions like gloabl warming or mass transit, but they don’t see any churches or priests involved.

Al Gore makes Elmer Gantry look like a piker, my friend.

Actually you do have a point. Gore is less of an evangelist than a latter-day P. T. Barnum.

By: Paul -Indiana

Paul -Indiana — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:34:32 +0000

Are you still glad that you voted for Obama?

By: VA Teacher

VA Teacher — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:53:17 +0000

Here in Northern Virginia (ok, it’s really greater DC) we have a subway system that is packed during rush hour, costs more to use than driving (unless you totally give up your car) and is still losing money. Seems like a flawed business plan to me…

I bike downtown in the warm months and drive in the cold ones.

By: antne

antne — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:07:33 +0000

I rode public transportation all through high school AND college. NEVER AGAIN!.
As long as I draw breath and have money, I will drive my own car. I will not be a target for the unwashed masses
of thieves, bums, addicts,and welfare queens who ride public transportation for FREE.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:40:44 +0000

I have a simple rule of thumb, if a rail-based mass transit system makes sense for a geographic locale, then chances are that locale hasn’t been without one since the 18th century (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc.)

Oh, and Horace, that all depends on where you live. Here in Portland the money spent on roads is mostly to restripe for bike lanes, and add various “traffic calming” systems like chicanes, speed bumps and traffic circles (not the big roundabouts but a 12 foot round planter in the middle of an intersection).

It’s not a secret conspiracy, our local government has said they want to do everything they can to push people out of cars. What part of the Constitution mandates social engineering again?

By: Whitehall

Whitehall — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:55:33 +0000

Let me illustrate the economics of commuting on San Jose’s public transit system.

To commute from a fairly dense “suburb” at the edge of city limits – houses on 6,000 sq. ft lots, low rise apartments scattered within – to downtown, specifically near the airport.

To use public transit would take 1 hour 30 minutes each way – local bus to light rail. And that ignores the foot transit time. Driving takes me 20 minutes, max. So it is 3 hours a day versus 40 minutes.

That’s over two hours a day, five days a week – 10 hours a work week out of 40 hours. Working any overtime would be brutal and hence strongly discouraged with public transit.

That is an extremely large hit on productivity. Multiply that across the work force and that’s a lot of highly skilled manpower sitting on a bus or train.

Add that our system gets only 10% of its revenues out of the fare box, and every dollar of rider contribution is matched with $9 from the tax payer.

Of course, the response is “smart growth.” That is high density apartments at light rail stations. The ones we have now tend to be low income immigrants with subsidized rents.

By: John Ahrens

John Ahrens — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:49:35 +0000

I don’t know the numbers nationally, but I know that in Central Puget Sound (including Seattle, WA) approximately 55% of all public transportation dollars are spent on public transit, bus, train (may include state ferries), which constitute just 4% of all trips.

By: caestal

caestal — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:32:05 +0000

So Horace, you figure that the percentage is what matters… in other words, what’s a few billion dollars here and there, as long as it is less than we spend on legitimate transportation needs?
Religion, by the way, in the sense of being faith-based instead of reason- or fact-based, is what you seem to be proving.

That being said, there is obviously a place for mass transit, light rails, etc. It isn’t the concept of them that is flawed, it is the execution of it. Even if they were at a modest loss, they trains can be worthwhile. After all, how much do we spend on the infrastructure for air travel? How about keeping streams and rivers in navigable condition?

Get rid of the pork, get rid of the “bridges to nowhere on wheels,” create some useful rail systems where they are actually needed, and you will see far less opposition to them.

By: Horace Wells

Horace Wells — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:06:23 +0000

I love how right wingers are so quick to point out new religions like gloabl warming or mass transit, but they don’t see any churches or priests involved. Maybe they are just projecting their theocon sillines on others? Don’t worry drivers, 90%+ of the money spent on transporation is still spent on roads. Butlet’s get all paranoid and look for new ways to get fearful.

By: DaveinPhoenix

DaveinPhoenix — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:52:21 +0000

$1.5 billion for light rail in Phoenix – began operation in December and already losing money. 30 mph train in a city which spans 70 miles east to west. Great. Just what I wanted to spend my taxes on.