Feb

4

Shovel ready — or rider ready?

Filed Under Uncategorized 

The national economic stimulus bill is focused on big capital projects — including highways that cannot find local funding.

Left out in the cold?  Transit riders.  The recession means more transit riders, because transit is easier on the household budget than driving.  But it also means the tax collections that support transit agencies are down, leading to cutbacks in service.  Sounds like a great job for the national economic stimulus bill.  Keep drivers employed, get people to work, protect the most vulnerable among us that rely on public transit.   Well, no such luck.  The New York Times covers it here. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/us/04transit.html.

This is a very real problem right here in Seattle.  Our promised “Rapid Ride” lines to Crown Hill, N. Aurora and West Seattle are threatened by budget problems at Metro.  Existing buses are packed.  And our state legislature and Governor appear reluctant to grant any new taxing authority to Metro.

Yes, we love our cars and highways.  We even love our light rail.  But when will we get that we have an approaching crisis in maintaining our local bus service?  It isn’t glamorous, but it’s serves lots of people, and could serve lots more.  And, as pointed out by the recent report from VTPI (see Josh’s post below), investing in transit beats highways for economic stimulus.

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