Thursday, March 4, 2010

On Public Transit, and $$

Cutting service on Sundays in Snohomish County is a good start. Ending operations between midnight and 6 A.M. is a logical second step. Raising fares by $1.00 across the board is a good third step. If necessary, reduced mid-day services and reducing rush hour services to once every TWENTY minutes is worthwhile.

To make up for the deficit, allowing the return of privately operated public transit lines as either subscription or pick-up services may fill the gap. Or folks can drive electric cars - Wheego, over at Wheego.net, is releasing a freeway speed EV for under 40k in July, apparently.

Running transit at not just a dead loss, but a horrific loss is a bad idea at any time - but especially during a economic depression. If it's cheaper to buy each rider an electric car and sell the buses - then let's do that. If it's more affordable to sell the buses to private operators and allow them to charge market rates - let's do that.

What we can't do is cripple individuals and businesses, the very engines of economic recovery, by nickel and diming them to death with new taxes every time a badly administered boondoggle runs short of cash - yet again.

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