In article <telecom26.140.3@telecom-digest.org>,
dave.garland@wizinfo.com says:
> It was a dark and stormy night when Wesrock@aol.com wrote:
>> There is no place in the world where public passenger transportation
>> does not require a subsidy; in most cases, outright operation by a
>> governmental entity.
>> Also, rail transit systems are tremendously expensive to build in
>> established cities.
> All true. But exactly the same is true of automobile-centered
> transportation. User fees (gas tax and tolls) pay for only a small
> fraction of the cost of construction, maintenance, and operation of
> highways, roads, streets. And for the total cost, you need to add on
> top of that the cost to users for purchase, maintenance, and operation
> of the vehicles.
> Dave
So true, cars have gotten major subsidies over the years. It's time to
make them start paying the true costs then you might see public
transit start to blossom.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will tell you how this conondrum has
worked its way down even to tiny little towns like the place where I
live: We have NO public transportation as such; there is a free-will
offering donation bus for senior citizens: Notify them 24 hours in
advance, they will come around and pick you up to wherever you wish to
go in the immediate area (around this rural county.)
We also have a taxicab service: It _was_ four dollars flat rate to
anywhere in town, and a dollar per mile outside of this town. (For
example, Coffeyville is twenty miles, the fare is twenty dollars.) Now
that four dollar flat rate in town was raised recently to five dollars
anywhere in town after gasoline got to be so expensive (three dollars
plus per gallon.) For senior citizens and other disabled people like
myself, the fare is two dollars anywhere in town, plus a coupon,
redeemed by City of Independence so the cab driver gets the full five
dollars. Cab driver (he is a sole owner; it is a family operation)
says now it appears they may have to raise the fare again, if gas
prices continue to rise. Trouble is, they have to get permission from
City of Independence to raise the fares. Now he says they may instead
go out of business if they cannot get the raise requested.
Fortunatly, I now have my motorized wheel chair which allows me to get
around _most places, most of the time_, but not everywhere, obviously.
I suggest that the high price of gasoline these days also serves as an
excellent incentive for people to use public transit if their town has
anything like it. PAT]
T (nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net)