Comments on: “Stranded at the Station”

By: About Face: Governor Signs Gas Tax Swap Legislation, After All « Transbay Blog

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:45:46 +0000

[...] It is nice to see the Governor finally agree to give some money back to transit, and the Legislature should also be recognized for its work in pushing through a partial fix for transit agencies, in spite of the Governor’s reluctance to support a revenue-neutral piece of budget of legislation. Imperfect though it may be, this funding will be a welcome booster shot for California’s cash-strapped transit agencies. [...]

By: California Legislature Passes Legislation to Restore STA Funding « Transbay Blog

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:22:48 +0000

[...] agencies across the nation are struggling, California’s transit agencies have been hit particularly hard, thanks to the elimination of the STA funds. But relief may be on the way, if Governor [...]

By: An Open Letter to the Green Governor « Transbay Blog

An Open Letter to the Green Governor « Transbay Blog — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:14:34 +0000

[...] to fix California’s transit systems, which are broke and breaking. Under-served areas had critical lifeline service put to the chopping block, but climate change demands that we reduce vehicle miles traveled statewide. Killing the gas sales [...]

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:29:22 +0000

@David: The lifetime of infrastructure projects is at least a half-century, so you cannot simply look at this years funding (or even the past decade’s funding) and say “transit gets enough funding because it has a low mode share.” When compared to the trillions of dollars that America has invested in roads and highways over the past 60 years, as well as subsidies to the oil and automobile industries, transit’s subsidy is proportionally waaay lower than its current mode share.

By: David

David — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:54:00 +0000

18% of funding, but transit is low single digits for ridership share. Think it already gets enough funding. if you want to improve it, bring down labor costs.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:41:50 +0000

Well yeah, getting back to the same per capita transit ridership is a different story, and not really possible with existing funding priorities. What we’re looking at here are smaller (although still welcome) increases in transit usage within, and despite, the existing road-dominated paradigm.

By: DAVID VARTANOFF

DAVID VARTANOFF — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:16:46 +0000

Much as I am pleased at gains in transit usage, I would remind all that in 1956 there were half as many residents in the US, so equaling ridership ## is really only half as a % per cent .