Transit agencies are now demanding that Congress give them at least $25 billion so they can continue infecting people with COVID-19. Restaurants, bars, shopping malls, amusement parks, and barber shops are all supposed to shut down, but let’s keep transit running even though one study has found that “mass transportation systems offer an effective way of accelerating the spread of infectious diseases within communities.”
At least one transit agency, Portland’s TriMet, is now admitting that it’s too dangerous for people to ride transit and that they should stay at home (or drive) instead. But it is still running its buses and trains. Why? For “medical staff, first responders and other essential workers.” So we’re encouraging health care and other “essential” people to use the form of transportation whose riders are nearly six times more likely to suffer from upper respiratory infections. That’s smart!
Speaking of smart (as in smart growth), the New York Times is blaming the high incidence of coronavirus in New York City on the city’s dense population. The newspaper-of-record noted that the nation’s largest and densest major city has 26 times as many cases and 18 times as many fatalities as the nation’s second-largest city, Los Angeles. Continue reading
