Problems With Mass Transit Won't Be Solved With More MoneyThe transit systems we're supposed to hop aboard ultimately operate as jobs programs for government workers.
STEVEN GREENHUT
4.28.2023
California's public-transit systems are facing a crisis, as already-declining ridership levels fell another 80 percent in the midst of COVID-19. They have only rebounded to 60 percent after the end of the shutdown. Most agencies are facing fiscal calamity and, predictably, state lawmakers are seeking to infuse them with additional cash now that federal pandemic-related subsidies are subsiding.
With the state government now staring down a $25-billion deficit, there's no extra general-fund cash to prop up struggling systems. That may be a silver lining. Transit's problems have little to do with inadequate subsidies, so perhaps this challenge will force policymakers to rethink the fundamental problem: Our transit systems are so unpleasant that people don't want to use them.
State planners have been dumping record amounts of money into transit for years in the hopes that Californians will abandon their cars, but to no avail. The Southern California Association of Governments found that the region's "median" resident made zero transit trips in a year—and that transit ridership is concentrated in a fraction of the area's census tracts.
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If you peruse California's transportation documents, you'll find little focus on the nuts-and-bolts of transportation. Instead of improving the roads that most of us rely upon and building quality transit for those who depend upon it, the state is devoted to a policy of planned congestion that seeks to make us so miserable we abandon the cars that we rely upon. Just check out the trendy "road diets" that eliminate vital traffic lanes in favor of bike lanes.
The transit systems we're supposed to hop aboard ultimately operate as jobs programs for government workers and schemes that battle climate change. On the former point, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has a janitor who earned $270,000 in total compensation in a year. They view the rider—or potential rider—as an afterthought. That undermines their own stated goals.
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Meanwhile, those people who take transit complain about constant delays, long travel times, uncomfortable and dirty buses—and crime. BART is enduring a crime wave. An L.A. Metro survey last year found that ridership among women has fallen off a cliff—with the key cited reason being crime and a lack of cleanliness. After that system experimented with free ridership during the pandemic, vagrants overran their buses and trains. Go figure.
Such mundane consumer-oriented concerns explain why people increasingly avoid transit, yet the California Department of Transportation's main planning document is preoccupied with promoting "vibrant communities," advancing "racial and economic justice" and bolstering "public and environmental health." Those goals are fine, but the agencies can't even manage systems that commuters feel safe to use.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2023/04/28/problems-with-mass-transit-wont-be-solved-with-more-money/
