On Tuesday the Star ran a story about how the Board of Supervisors is thinking of canceling the shuttle bus for visitors to the Juvenile Center (jail) in El Rio. The actual cost, based on usage, is $125-156 per passenger. That, after an original start up cost of $450,000. That is money taken from the hard working families of our County. The money could have been used for public safety, health care or schools. Instead, it was used to make it easier for families to visit criminals in a jail.
In fact, it would be cheaper to have a cab take the 4-5 people per day to the jail. Much cheaper.
With that I challenge my readers in Simi Valley, and the rest of the County to look at the buses running around the streets, causing pollution. You will note, that except when school is in regular session, before and after school, are the only times government buses have any significant ridership in this County. All government bus systems are heavily subsidized (meaning your tax dollars) to keep them going.
During the day, these massively large buses usually have one or two people on the bus. This is a major cost to the taxpayers and an addition to the carbon problem facing us. Would it not be better to hire cabs for the few who use the buses and get the school districts to pay to get the students to the schools?
It is time we reevaluated government transit and its costs--financially and to the environment.
End the tax subsidies to the buses and they will go broke in a few days. Instead, the people of Ventura County are going broke propping up the government bus system.
Count the riders on the buses, then tell your city council we need a new answer to move people--maybe a free market approach?
What do you think? Are there other areas of government that are wasted?
Stephen:
One of the concepts I've noticed more and more is the role of voluntary joint powers or quasi government organizations in promoting certain concepts such as public transit or new urbanism. They actively communicate their interests in the form research-based reports that are design to push public opinion of decision-makers in a certain way.
For instance, I believe the California Redevelopment Association and the League of California Cities recently battled over eminent domain with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association over prop 99 and prop 98. It appears these interests used taxpayer money to fund prop 99 (the more redevelopment friendly one) and defeat prop 98.
It just seems like the iron triangle controls the agenda and the research on so many of these local land use issues.
Pg. 3 of the transportation section of the "state of the region" from the Ventura County Civic Alliance is pretty telling in terms of public transportation costs linked above.
Steve,
I agree. The whole concept behind public transit is - If we build it, they will come. So, we've got these massive buses rolling around town with 3 people in them on the premise that some day everyone will decide to get out of their cars and ride the bus. That's why transit is so heavily subsidized. The revenue the transit systems generate from the farebox will never come close to covering their costs because so few people are riding.
RE: That is money taken from the hard working families of our County. The money could have been used for public safety, health care or schools.
When has anyone at the County ever worried about how much they take from the families of ventura county, hard working or not?? The families , themselves, should have kept the money...public safety, school, county health are over funded...and an endless pit....it doesn't matter how much we pour into that stuff...they are always back asking for more......
ps: want to save money...fire the $350,000+ county pension manager and take away "take home cars" from county officiaals and elite employees...then let's go thru what perks the city employees don't "need"...have cops start paying form their own pensions, instead of having the taxpayers pay.....and reduce top pay for appointed county officials to below $100,000, no doubt we can get plenty of people to do the same jobs for less money...especially in this economy.....
Hey Flamo,
Have missed the news lately. Since gas prices are now approaching $5 a gallon public transit ridership is soaring. We have not encouraged people to use public transit and have encouraged our suburban lifestyle with people living 50 from where they work. This is no longer sustainable. The city is lowering the number of required parking spaces to try to force people on to the buses and trains.The problem we have is as we reduce available parking in new developments we do not have the public transit infrastructure to support the growing number of riders. The fact is we will be forced onto the buses and trains as the price of gas continues to rise.
I like your thinking, Brian. Let's continue to root for gas prices to go higher so we can force people to ride public transit.
Better yet, let's structure our downtown parking space and install parking meters to discourage people from making a free choice about whether to drive their cars or not. Social engineering at its best. Gotta love it!
I am not rooting for higher gas prices, that is the wish of the oil administration. You know Bush and friends from KBR abd Halliburton.
Working people are having their free choice of driving removed by the price of gas which was engineered by the oil administrations bad policies, and the weak dollar. This is what is removing your free choice.
The city council is seriously considering parking meters downtown and in the parking structures. They and the planning commission are the ones trying to social engineer you out of your car not me.
When I was working in Simi Valley I took Metrolink to work several days a week and it was great. Less expensive and less stressful than driving as well as faster.
You need to wake up, the cost of fuel is not going down. The suburban lifestyle we grew up with in California is not sustainable unless we make more public transportation available. If we don't the only solution for most people will be to move closer to where they work and you are going to see property values in towns like ours drop like a rock.
Metrolin k is NOT less expenisve. while YOu may pay a little less for the ride, the tacpayers pay a fortune.
The tax subsidy, the money poor people pay for you to take Metrolink from downtown LA to Simi Valley, one way, is OVER $10. A round trip costs the people of Dallas $20 for you to have a less expensive ride.
That is the problem with government, it tries to make believe you can live at the expense of others. You bought the canard. And, we pay for your gullibility.
You need to apologize to the people of Clovis, Dallas, Hoboken and Syracuse for taking their money so you can have a "less expensive" ride.
Yes Steve public transportation is subsidized. However as rider ship goes up the need for subsidies will drop like the value of the dollar. You don't mind subsiding the oil companies, airlines or incompetent Wall Street Bankers. But people who need low cost ways to get to work you have a problem with. You must have never taken a ride on a Metrolink train; working class people are the riders! Not limousine Conservatives like your self. Gullible are working class people who buy into the lie that if you vote Republican you will become as rich as Dick Cheney, George Bush or Rupert Murdoch. These people view the working class as suckers.
My nephew is going to have to give up his job because it is costing him $30 a day in gas. If there was a reliable public transportation network he would be able to keep working. Who do you think you are fooling.
Yes Steve public transportation is subsidized. However as rider ship goes up the need for subsidies will drop like the value of the dollar. You don't mind subsiding the oil companies, airlines or incompetent Wall Street Bankers. But people who need low cost ways to get to work you have a problem with. You must have never taken a ride on a Metrolink train; working class people are the riders! Not limousine Conservatives like your self. Gullible are working class people who buy into the lie that if you vote Republican you will become as rich as Dick Cheney, George Bush or Rupert Murdoch. These people view the working class as suckers.
My nephew is going to have to give up his job because it is costing him $30 a day in gas. If there was a reliable public transportation network he would be able to keep working. Who do you think you are fooling.
You need to apologize to the working people of Ventura county!
Another point you may have missed. POOR PEOPLE PAY TAXES TOO to keep the buses running.
Brian,
You're right, poor people do pay taxes too, but proportionately less than those on the upper end of the socioeconomic scale. They also benefit disproportionately more from public transit because they typically live closer to their jobs than do those making higher incomes, thus making riding public transit a more viable option for them.
We could argue back and forth about the economics of this ad nauseum, but the bottom line is for public transit to be a reasonable alternative to the automobile, it needs to be both convenient and cost-effective. At this point, it is neither.