The Bay Area where he lives is experiencing light rail disease. This is the phenomenon where middle class voters along heavy white collar commuting routes push for horrendously expensive light rail lines. The capital costs of these systems drain transit budgets into the distant future, forcing service cuts, particularly in bus systems that serve the poor. The result is that the city ends up with bigger transit bills, but less actual transit, and progressives like Scott scratch their head and try to figure out what went wrong. It must be because non-users of Transit aren’t paying enough!Translation: But ... but ... I like Light Rail! How could it possibly not work out?
Friday, October 23, 2009
Quote of the Day
Ever wonder why mass transit is continually FUBAR? Coyote Blog 'splains it:
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5 comments:
I don't know if it's entirely white collar workers, but I'd bet it's mostly liberals. It's the same with the T around here. Not to mention the Commuter Rail. Which Governor Patrick is pushing for a completely unfeasible $ 2 Billion expansion to the South Coast area.
If it were convenient and comfortable to use, it would pay for itself. That it doesn't means it's not profitable (or a private outfit would do it). Which to liberals is just proof that we need to pour more taxpayer money into a failure to make it work.
Borepatch,
I am right along with ya' on this one as well as the farce which most Americans buy into about global warming.
I live right in the heart of "Liberal Primordial Muck" or better known as Kalifornicateia and the light rail has been pushed down our tax paying throats to the absurd limit.
Yet and still..... these moran's keep buying into it all like so many Lemmings running off the proverbial cliff.
I do not comment here too often but I "do" read your posts everyday.
This one just struck a real sore nerve with me!
Keep up the good work here as what you have to say is being listened to, In more ways than one with the Fed's also pushing for full access to BLOG'S now for christ's sake
TOTWTYTR, it "works" when the gov gets more power and control. How many bums are in the seats on the train isn't the point - how many bums (and WHICH bums) are in the seats in the Statehouse - that's the point.
Native, thanks for the very kind words. Sometimes it feels like I'm howling in the wilderness. Well, I probably am howling in the wilderness, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only one.
And if you're interested in the follies of passenger rail in particular, you should read The Antiplanner.
You're far from being the only one. Keep howling. We'll keep reading.
As for light rail, one of my favorite bloggers is Max Redline from Portland, Oregon, one of those cities plagued by light rail. There's another connection between Max Redline and Coyote Blog and, oddly enough, it has to do with a real live coyote, photographed hitching a ride on the light rail in Portland.
I spotted the photo on Max Redline's blog (I think it was part of the header then) in 2006. Two and a half years later Coyote Blog posted the same photo, with a link to the news story.
Gordon, that's quite a picture. And I agree with your commentary - it's probably nice and warm on that train!
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