I'm all about public transit, we haven't had a car in almost 20 years. More funding for every kind of public transit is speaking my language.
But it's like everything infrastructure in life, it requires attention and maintenance. You can't just install it and then walk away - it has to be taken care of. And that's what usually goes to the dogs when budgeting happens later in the life of the project; maintenance declines, budgets are shifted elsewhere, servicing is ignored, and the rot starts to build.
I actually think that public transportation is one of the most fundamental of public works where tax money belongs.
Yeah, they are called cars. We already solved this "problem". It is even more ridiculous in the south where everyone commutes a minimum of 10 miles, average of 20. No form of centralized transport "fixes" the desire to not be on top of your neighbors.
This is where a 'touch it and die' approach needs to be adopted for the funding. The fund can be increased, but it can never be decreased or rerouted. Nothing not part of the expansion or maintenance of the transit project can be folded under its umbrella (aka Pork) and no greedy union can use it as their cudgel or personal slushfund.
Maybe not never reduced. Like if metro line makes a surplus off of its fair price maybe the tax payers don’t need to pay more for that line in the annual budget since the line is self sufficient. But the surplus should not ever be redirected. It should go into a bank account and the only reason money is ever taken out should be for repairs or to cover for a bad year.
I'm all about public transit, we haven't had a car in almost 20 years. More funding for every kind of public transit is speaking my language.
But it's like everything infrastructure in life, it requires attention and maintenance. You can't just install it and then walk away - it has to be taken care of. And that's what usually goes to the dogs when budgeting happens later in the life of the project; maintenance declines, budgets are shifted elsewhere, servicing is ignored, and the rot starts to build.
I actually think that public transportation is one of the most fundamental of public works where tax money belongs.
Yeah, they are called cars. We already solved this "problem". It is even more ridiculous in the south where everyone commutes a minimum of 10 miles, average of 20. No form of centralized transport "fixes" the desire to not be on top of your neighbors.
This is where a 'touch it and die' approach needs to be adopted for the funding. The fund can be increased, but it can never be decreased or rerouted. Nothing not part of the expansion or maintenance of the transit project can be folded under its umbrella (aka Pork) and no greedy union can use it as their cudgel or personal slushfund.
Maybe not never reduced. Like if metro line makes a surplus off of its fair price maybe the tax payers don’t need to pay more for that line in the annual budget since the line is self sufficient. But the surplus should not ever be redirected. It should go into a bank account and the only reason money is ever taken out should be for repairs or to cover for a bad year.