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DAVE OLSEN, THE TYEE - Why do we have any barriers to using buses and
urban trains? The threat of global warming is no longer in doubt. The
hue and cry of the traffic-jammed driver grows louder every commute. And
politicians are getting the message. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
has ordered his staff to seriously examine the costs of charging people
to ride public transit. And Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York,
recently voiced to a reporter his top dream: "I would have mass transit
be given away for nothing and charge an awful lot for bringing an
automobile into the city."
Consider this sampling of communities providing free rides on trolleys,
buses, trams and ferries: Staten Island, N.Y.; Island County, Wash.;
Chapel Hill, N.C.; Vail, Colo.; Logan and Cache Valley, Utah; Clemson,
S.C.; Commerce, Calif.; Châteauroux, Vitré, and Compiègne, France;
Hasselt, Belgium; Lubben, Germany; Mariehamn, Finland; Nova Gorica,
Slovenia; Türi, Estonia; and Övertorneå, Sweden. . .
You have to figure in roads, parking and other infrastructure, tax
breaks for car and fuel companies, as well as subsidies for car-carrying
ferries and federal income tax reductions and write-offs for companies
that use motor vehicles. By some estimates, the government subsidy to
each private vehicle owner is about $3,700, while a common cost for
providing a single trip by transit is about $5. . .
Done right, fare-free transit can transform society, says Patrick
Condon, an expert on sustainable urban development who knows the system
in Amherst, Mass. "Free transit changed the region for the better.
Students, teens and the elderly were able to move much more freely
through the region. Some ascribed the resurgence of Northampton, Mass,
at least in part, to the availability of free transit. Fares in that
region would have provided such a small percentage of capital and
operating costs that their loss was made up for by contributions by the
major institutions to benefit: the five colleges in the region," says
Condon, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/57802/
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DAVE OLSEN, THE TYEE - Why do we have any barriers to using buses and
urban trains? The threat of global warming is no longer in doubt. The
hue and cry of the traffic-jammed driver grows louder every commute. And
politicians are getting the message. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
has ordered his staff to seriously examine the costs of charging people
to ride public transit. And Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York,
recently voiced to a reporter his top dream: "I would have mass transit
be given away for nothing and charge an awful lot for bringing an
automobile into the city."
Consider this sampling of communities providing free rides on trolleys,
buses, trams and ferries: Staten Island, N.Y.; Island County, Wash.;
Chapel Hill, N.C.; Vail, Colo.; Logan and Cache Valley, Utah; Clemson,
S.C.; Commerce, Calif.; Châteauroux, Vitré, and Compiègne, France;
Hasselt, Belgium; Lubben, Germany; Mariehamn, Finland; Nova Gorica,
Slovenia; Türi, Estonia; and Övertorneå, Sweden. . .
You have to figure in roads, parking and other infrastructure, tax
breaks for car and fuel companies, as well as subsidies for car-carrying
ferries and federal income tax reductions and write-offs for companies
that use motor vehicles. By some estimates, the government subsidy to
each private vehicle owner is about $3,700, while a common cost for
providing a single trip by transit is about $5. . .
Done right, fare-free transit can transform society, says Patrick
Condon, an expert on sustainable urban development who knows the system
in Amherst, Mass. "Free transit changed the region for the better.
Students, teens and the elderly were able to move much more freely
through the region. Some ascribed the resurgence of Northampton, Mass,
at least in part, to the availability of free transit. Fares in that
region would have provided such a small percentage of capital and
operating costs that their loss was made up for by contributions by the
major institutions to benefit: the five colleges in the region," says
Condon, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/57802/
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