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51 comments on Oil and the future - the commuter shift to public transport
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The transit system here in Denver is up against a situation that many other transit systems also face.
1) Fuel prices are up, even with long term contracts, the price continues to rise.
2) The rider ship is up, extra buses are required to fill the required routes.
3) About 70% of our income comes from a district wide sales tax. With the economy in poorer shape, sales revenue is down.
As a result they want to cut off some low rider ship routes. This is not a very popular idea with the board of directors, since they each have a district they represent; they don’t want to cut any routes from their district. To me the logical thing to do is raise fares, more money from the fare box.
It will be interesting to see how this works out. One thing is for sure, there will be a shortage of transit equipment for a long time to come.
How about adding more taxes on gasoline and diesel and funnelling the money to the transit system?
In my opinion, fares should be zero as they hit the poor very hard, require substantial effort to collect and enforce, and discourage people from using transit.
I live in NYC, and for many people the $1.70 or so a ride is no small change. We've also got enormous amount of wealth in this city, and the city could easily raise the money from other sources if it wasn't so corrupt and in-bed with the rich.