Taxpayer Transportation

The Daily Post had an interesting front page article yesterday titled "Mass transit ridership drops:  Despite billions in subsidies".  I'll just retype a couple of factoids that caught my eye:

A new study by the Metropolitan Transportation Committee, or MTC, found that there has been a 3% overall transit ridership increase over the past two decades, but per capita usage of transit has dropped 14% since 1991, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bay Area residents took 1.35 million trips on public transportation on a typical weekday in 2013, according to the MTC study.  That is an increase over recession numbers, but it is still lower than peak ridership in 2001.

The article points out that even new transit routes "clearly don't match where the jobs are going" and mentions that the campus-style business centers on the Peninsula are not linked to mass transit.  Newsflash:  our $69-100 billion dollar high-cost rail system will not do a thing to solve any of this.

Comments

[Jennifer]

This is a gem of an article, particularly considering the source. So, our communities are being forced to densify according to the "One Bay Area" doctrine, without any proof that this will increase use of mass transit. Somebody is benefitting, but it's not the common folk. Cheap, generic looking boxes are coming up like mushrooms. This seems to me to be social and environmental consciousness gone awry. How on earth did anyone ever come up with the idea that people who live in TODs don't need (or want) cars? Well meaning people are getting the wool pulled over their eyes while many Peninsula cities have begun their decline into the generic and vulgar, lacking any identity. But I guess that's what we should expect when we follow the mantra "One Bay Area". What a racket!

In our household, as many times as my (public transit loving) husband has tried in earnest to use public transportation to work, he has always ended up back in his car. Why? Because it doesn't save any time or money and is inconvenient. Forget HSR! If we do not create a localized public transit NETWORK that actually has connections to other systems that travel often, and goes where people work, we can densify forever and we still won't get people out of their cars. That means subsidies and higher taxes; that's how the rest of the world works.

[Jennifer]

I would love to have been a fly on the wall for the OBAG PR sessions...

How to sell this Plan? First, think of a good name...

"One Bay Area"-- 'sounds very Kumbaya, no?

Other names considered, but rejected:

"Densifying Together!" [includes snappy jingle (Bruce, you could have handled this one, eh?) along with a happy face decal for TOD windows]

"'Burbs Without Borders"

[Bruce Dickinson]

I like what I’m hearing Jen,

How about this:

Public
Official
Obliteration
of
Private
Property

or POOoPP

Listen, fellas, I’m sounding like a broken record (no pun intended), but Bruce Dickinson feels the need to opine on this subject one more time, as I know demand for my content is a precious commodity these days, and quite frankly, some appear to be obsessed by it, at it were, as evidenced by the fact that some appear to be stalking me and my web pages! So creep around as you may, it takes a lot more to scare this spring chicken into submission! Also, I get the “wow, I’m getting THE BRUCE DICKINSON’s attention" antics, and yes, so you got my attention for a split second. Every once in a while, when I’m on the freeway in one of my Ferraris especially, I get some d-baggy yuppie type or some kid driving in a Hyndai or BMW that grandma’s trust fund bought him, hot-dogging it, revving his engine, tailgating me, or cutting me off. Then I blip the throttle and the victim soon hears the shockwave of V-12 shooting out of a four-barrel exhaust that practically bursts eardrums. Yes, that is the sound of Bruce Dickinson driving a Ferrari, a car that the hapless victim isn’t driving and never will. Soon the attention they got as well as their POS clunker is but a speck in my rear view mirror and I look at the road ahead in sheer bliss and enjoyment and move right on.

Which brings me to Driver’s Ed lesson #1: Always look ahead and look several car lengths ahead as your speed increases. Frankly, all these government agencies are doing nothing other than looking in the rear view mirror, or not looking far ahead at the road at all. Guess what, the road isn’t some cobblestone street in Europe or a neon-lined alley in Tokyo. This road is in the USA. There is a reason why the primary transportation network evolved out of the automobile in the USA, despite the fact that the railroad was practically invented here. It is because the USA is a large country with relatively low population density. All these government guys do is travel to other countries (on my dime as a tax payer mind you), and think wow, this public transportation system would work great and we can clear up pollution, live closer together, eat outside, mingle, and be happy . Well for large distances and lower densities it doesn’t work and in the USA we have what is another precious commodity, called land, and it is in abundance. Why put this land to waste? It is there for us to enjoy and hopefully keep in its more natural state. We know that supply and demand for transportation over all these years made these types of public transportation schemes infeasible (for most areas, not all, mind you) and the automobile took off as the primary vehicle. This is why in places like LA or Houston, you’re never gonna get public transportation that serves all adequately and makes sense economically. Ask anyone in San Francisco, which is a perfect 8x8 square mile city, how good public transit is? The answer is: not very. You’re talking about nearly the perfect place for public transportation, yet Muni and BART cannot yet earn a single dime, continue to hemorrhage losses, and people complain about Muni or busses not being on schedule.

Also, it’s the good old US of A that is ingenuity central, and leapfrogging all this investment in resource intensive hub-and-spoke public infrastructure, and is instead moving at a higher speed, coming up with driverless vehicles. Not only is the convenience factor increased, but it is actually done at a minimal cost to society, unlike the HSBoondoggle that will literally suck all our resources if built and provide service to very few. Public transportation makes sense for certain routes, but in this country, it won’t for many reasons, as discussed. While Bruce Dickinson has no crystal ball, I foresee massive stranded costs in late 20th century public transportation infrastructure that will never, ever, be recovered or repaid, in an economic sense. This may be a reason why you have these transportation agencies creating problems to solve. The real problem is these officials’ lack of career prospects, and what better way to justify their existence than to create a problem to solve? Guys, no prescription is needed when the ailment is all in your head. All you gotta do is change your thinking!

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I am not advocating any sort of armed revolution.
Sooner or later after mediating, negotiating, law suit after law suit, the government continues to move forward.
It is to late to speak about "a line in the sand."
Now that there are so many grateful undoc's with driver licenses, and no auto insurance, the voting blocks in California have been "gerrymandered" to the point that not a single Voter actually has any idea what they are voting for other than "their one" special thing. Guns, Abortion, Crossing Guard, blowers.
One single earthquake can change it all.
Nevertheless, our politician's do not care what we think, because they know we do not think.