From Ken Ohrn …
@News1130Radio tweeted this:
QUESTION: Should money be taken from community services to fund transit instead? Tweet us your thoughts!
In other words, any new transit comes at the expense of the downtrodden and disadvantaged. Slogan: transit equals cruelty.
Since when are drivers the downtrodden, and transit riders the elite? What the hell kind of cognitive dissonance are News1130 smoking?
It’s single-occupant vehicles, and their infrastructure boondoggles, that are killing this province.
Why do SUV drivers hate children?
Irresponsible and sensational journalism. It’s really too bad that this is being done. Better transit benefits everyone.
Reply to News1130: fund transit with funds taken from highway expansion
Fund transit with money taken from highway expansion. Slogan: one less bridge.
I always hate these online polls, but to play devil’s advocate, you have to make these conscious decisions about how to spend money and why we raise taxes. I definately agree that “detailed analysis” and “news1130” do not go together.
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Jarrett Walker had an interesting piece on a transit subisidy in NYC for students paid for by the state, city and the MTA. In the financial crisis in 2008, that state unilaterally cut off its funding.
“But the MTA generously agreed to pay a third of the discount’s cost, while the City and State were supposed to pick up the other two thirds. For some reason, as costs of this discount continued to grow due to growing numbers of children, the MTA found itself making up the difference. Finally, in the budget crises of 2008, the State cut its own contribution. Suddenly, MTA was paying the full cost of a discount that didn’t really serve the agency’s mission. And of course, when they discussed reducing it, the story was cruel MTA trying to balance the budget on the backs of poor students. ”
http://www.humantransit.org/2009/12/bail-out-new-yorks-transit-system.html
I see this with TL and the taxi saver program. When it was first introduced, the system was far less handicap-accessible and had more limitations with hours (no FTN). Now that we have 100% low-floor buses and clear guidelines for the FTN, it is very hard to reduce the taxisaver program.
Food for thought – if the CoV wants the compass card to maintain free transit access to the homeless (currently funded by the BC Housing), why is it asking TL to arrange this, and not other agencies?
“Advocacy groups across Metro Vancouver have long distributed single-use transit tickets to ensure homeless clients can get transportation to a shelter when needed, or to key appointments, such as for medical care and job interviews.
Money to buy those FareSaver tickets comes from the provincial government via B.C. Housing.
But Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs wants TransLink to ensure some replacement system is in place once fare gates take effect and old ticket types are phased out.”
http://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/214218551.html?mobile=true
I’m sick of the main stream media. The days when the media served as the fifth estate, when they sought truth and questioned government and big business are long gone.
@mezzanine:
I’ve been told the taxi saver program is there primarily to supplement HandyDart not the regular bus system. When they proposed cutting the program it was announced that accommodating taxi saver users with expanded HandyDart service would be even more expensive than the taxi vouchers and still not meet the needs of people needing transportation on short notice. Based on that statement the program that needs to be eliminated is HandyDart, not taxi saver.
I think the issue with Compass is that BC Housing won’t be able to buy bulk books of transit tickets that can then be distributed one at a time to those in need. Instead of giving a homeless person a single use paper ticket they’ll have to hand them an RFID enabled plastic card pre-loaded with a single fare. That’s going to require a lot more effort by everyone involved. Anything TransLink can do to ease that pain is worth asking about.
@David,
IIRC, the taxi saver dilemma is scope-creep, put on the back on TL.
“TransLink spokesman Drew Snider said TaxiSavers had become an uncontrolled cost with 85 per cent of users not actually using HandyDart.
Many of them were stockpiling the taxi coupons, resulting in a growing liability for TransLink, with nothing to prevent holders from giving or reselling them to unauthorized users.
Snider said the taxi subsidy was originally launched in 1990 to fill in a service gap at a time when the bus fleet wasn’t accessible.
All buses now have low floors or lifts, he said, and HandyDart has expanded greatly, with its vehicles running until midnight.
Meanwhile, he said, the pressure to keep up with rising HandyDart demand has been intense.”
WRT to the compass card and the homeless, i have no link, but i dont think the limitation is the technology (the Jeff Nagel article states that they have a paper ticket planned already). I suspect with great certainty what agency will pay for transit for the homeless will be the problem.
From the jarrett walker link above:
“Part of transparency is avoiding deals like the three way funding split of the New York school subsidy. Don’t just split the subsidy three ways. Instead do the harder work of deciding why we fund school transportation and which level of government should be funding that outcome. If you’re going to split the subsidy three ways, be really clear about what happens when the demand rises and/or someone reneges on the deal. The correct answer should be that the subsidy drops in ways that students will notice, and all parties to the deal refer complaints to the party who really dropped the ball.”
How was TL dropping the ball WRT the homeless? what is wrong with giving homeless ppl paper single-ride Compass tickets like they are doing with existing faresavers?
oops, link to taxi saver history as per drew snider:
http://www.burnabynewsleader.com/news/151800495.html?mobile=true
[Interruption for trivialities] I think you’re thinking of the fourth estate. The Fifth Estate is a TV show on CBC that aims to keep an eye on the media. [/Interruption for trivialities]
@ David – Thank you. I loved that first paragraph.
Time to start organizing for what really needs to be done. Hint: Its not the Massey tunnel replacement