Driving has bounced back. Transit has not, leaving many transit agencies in financial straits. The obvious solution it to tax drivers to keep transit systems running, or even to keep them not running.
Actually, that’s not obvious to me, but it is obvious to some transit executives who are willing to take advantage of the fact that people have been conditioned to believe that cars are evil and transit is good so drivers should be taxed to support transit bureaucracies.
Take, for example, Golden Gate Transit, which started as a way of relieving congestion on the Golden Gate Bridge. Bridge tolls were used to subsidize buses between Marin County and San Francisco, and the people who paid the tolls were supposed to be happy that their commutes were less congested.
It’s hard to argue that Golden Gate Transit is less evil than driving, however. The agency’s ferries use nearly four times as much energy and emit more than four times as much greenhouse gases per passenger mile as the average car. Its buses also use more energy and emit more CO2 than the average car. More than twice as many high-income workers (people who earn more than $65,000 a year) from Marin County take transit to work as low-income workers (under $25,000 a year). Bridge tolls are regressive so the 89 percent of low-income workers who don’t commute by transit are subsidizing the 14 percent of high-income workers who do.
Stress is buy cipla viagra also linked to the six leading causes of death in the civilised world. Like other medicines, Silagra viagra pills http://www.midwayfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ApprovedMinutes-5-14-19.pdf too has few side effects of prolonged alcohol abuse. The web vet directories cialis price http://www.midwayfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/July-10-2018.doc are a great supply to deal with impotence but can even enhance your sexual capability by appearing as a sexual stimulator. Physical causes for weak erection problem include high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, kidney or liver disease, circumcision complications, smoking and injury to the genital region or spinal cord. cialis de prescription
Now most San Francisco employees are working at home, so there is little congestion on the bridge and few people taking Golden Gate buses or ferries. Though urban driving in California was at 82 percent of pre-pandemic levels in August, Golden Gate Transit ridership was down by 89 percent in September. The agency has cut bus and ferry service by more than 75 percent, but it is still facing a budget shortfall.
The shortfall is because it still has more than 200 bus drivers on its payroll even though it has cut bus service to practically nothing. It has been paying those people using federal CARES Act funds, but they will run out at the end of this month. The agency could lay off those drivers — after all, that’s what unemployment insurance is for — but instead it is considering increasing the tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge, which are already $8.40, by $2.
The proposal has surprised even the president of the local transit union, who had negotiated an agreement with the district to make furloughs and layoffs as painless as possible for the drivers and their families. But it appears that at least some Golden Gate executives believe that they are entitled to keep people on the payroll even if they don’t need them because transit is so much more moral than driving.
Covid19 is amplifying pre-covid problems. One of them is transit agencies refuse to even entertain shutting down or reducing failed projects like Nashville’s Music City Star or MPLS’ Northstar or central FL’s SunRail.
They hide behind the ( flimsy ) excuse that they’d have to pay back the Feds. Never mind that the same people they pay to lobby to land big $$$$$ for them could just as well lobby for the remaining $ to be forgiven / annulled. Even w/out that, it’s cheaper to take the short term hit than continue the futile long term bleed.
The hogs are already lining up at the trough:
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/infrastructure/press-release/21162379/us-high-speed-rail-association-ushsr-releases-fivepoint-highspeed-rail-plan-with-project-list
“The hogs are already lining up….”
The cost of the hogs’ plan amounts to over $1,100 for every man, woman and child in America “…making it possible to live a lower-stress, more affordable life without dependence on a car for mobility and survival.”
Dubious claims of energy efficiency ignore the basic laws of physics and economics. Even if it gets 1000 miles to the gallon (WHICH it doesn’t) the system that’ mostly Empty is useless waste of energy to build in the first place. A car with one passenger uses less energy than a bus with one passenger. And empty buses run around town all the time.
All the more reason the Federal Government needs to GET OUT of the transportation business…
They suck at doing things……….
But beyond that, Federal Funding is Always a source of political corruption and waste/fraud.
The history of transportation shows that people adopt new technologies when they are faster, more convenient, and less expensive.
– Steamboats replacing sails (not that sails were bad but steam more powerful and faster regardless of wind conditions, Sailing ships continued to move non-perishable cargo well into the 1900’s)
– trains replacing canals (Even though canal boats were more efficient at moving cargo, trains could go where no rivers or canals existed)
– streetcars replacing walking (FOR those that could afford daily usage)
automobiles; Replaced NONE of those technologies at all. It’s not that they replaced older technologies but that they greatly increased mobility from what it was before TO a much larger pool of the population. High-speed rail is slower than flying by plane, less convenient than driving, and far more expensive than the other, so it won’t increase mobility.
People remark the age old question: WHY does the US not have high speed rail, compared to Europe and Asia. Answer to that is Two fold.
1: Our railroads were privately owned; thus interested in turning a profit. Every doubling of speed quadruples aerodynamic drag even on a streamlined train, Quadrupling energy consumption and increases infrastructural wear and tear. We already had 100 mph trains………powered by steam, 100 years ago.
2: US rebuilt Japan and Europe post WWII, had they not they’d have rebuilt their transportation infrastructure on their own; divert funds to what end? Cars or trains. It took a decade for their respective auto industry to recover from the WWII ashes. Trains were what they resorted to for modest level travel.