Here’s a heads up on
the very high profile woes of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
(MBTA) serving the greater Boston area.
You may know that
MBTA broke down in a very public, teeth-grating way during the massive
snowfalls that battered Boston and suburbs in the last few months. Many days
there was erratic and snail-slow service, and some days there wasn’t any
service. In other words, public transit it wasn’t.
You may know that the
duly elected representatives of the people in Boston and the state have failed
to invest something close to $10 billion in recent years to keep the “T” going
with good equipment, on time. It’s a classic failure of government to take the
long view and allocate current funds as needed.
You may not know
that the Boston Globe has estimated that MBTA passengers are paying only about
39 percent of the system’s operating expenses. In Chicago the comparable figure
is 44 percent, and in San Francisco, 76 percent.
Quite obviously, the
funding, operational and public policy issues of the MBTA are complex and
difficult to manage.
Quite obviously,
folks who don’t ride on the trains and buses are paying the biggest share of
the cost to keep the arguably medium-quality operation going.
Quite obviously,
public transit serves a public good—it reduces commuter congestion, reduces
harmful pollutant emissions, provides transportation for workers without cars
who couldn’t get to work otherwise.
Quite obviously, it
doesn’t make real good sense that almost two-thirds of the cost is borne by
non-users. They’re getting taken for a ride.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
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