The Newshour with Jim Lehrer has a great video on the funding troubles transit agencies are facing.
The video apparently auto-plays, so I’ve moved it below the fold.

H/T to Lars.

9 Replies to “The Newshour on Transit in Trouble”

  1. At least some news programs are taking notice of this looming disaster. We now need to get more mainstream news outlets on board and MAKE the average American care about this issue. No small taskbut it’s got to be done.

  2. Interesting conundrum we have here:

    Systems are funded by sales taxes, which are tied to the economy as a whole: Bad economy, less revenue from taxes. Solution: cut service.

    On the other hand, the people that most need the transit (myself included, I do not own, nor can afford a car) will suffer from not having the transit. Suddenly, I cannot get to work, thus I lose my job.

    But oh ho, we are in a Dep/Recession. There are no other jobs to be had. (I have been looking for work for a month now, and I know of another contributor of this board who has been affected as well)

    So, how can we direct more funding into the transit systems, this critical CRITICAL backbone of the transportation network? How about road usage fees?

    The reasoning here is a little roundabout. If we take the main interstates and charge per use of them, then the roads themselves would become self sustaining, freeing up funds to go to mass transit. Lets think about this on the 4 lane divided highways:

    Why not start out at a base fee of 2 dollars for cars, 3 dollars for semi-trucks, and surcharge 10 cents a mile on top of that? Lets say for instance that 50000 cars a day took a commute between Exit number 135 in Tacoma and exit number 164 in Seattle. That would give us $2+2.90=$4.90 to use the freeway. Sound transit charges $4.75 for the Sounder, and a 594 ride costs 3.00. $4.90×50,000=$245,000 per commute per day. Add in an incentive that commuters only have to pay one way, if you have proof that you commute. Toll booths? No, we can implement the good to go system. Base it off of license plate numbers. Every car is licensed to somebody, so we could send that somebody a usage fee bill.

    The point is, ALL networks have a usage cost. ISP’s, telephone networks, cable networks, theu all charge for usage. Why not have a usage cost to the freeways?

    1. The problem is also worse for transit than roads, because roads can stick around when no one fixes them up, but transit service is gone forever if the bus never ran.

    1. The video in this post? Works fine for me. Worked last night and works now.
      Although I wouldn’t mind seeing a video about that either. That may be the one issue that effects me more than transit.

  5. This is truly scary. Our officials have to see the problems in the way that they are dealing with these issues!!!! We have to do something.

  6. Which “major transportation budget” later this year are they talking about? And how do we get some?

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