Here in Northern California, we've been paying a quarter or half percent (I don't remember which) sales tax for many, many, many years to subsidize mass transit. And a round trip ticket from where I live to San Francisco (about 40 miles away) costs over $9, which I don't consider "nearly free". And then there's the bus fare or cost of driving that most people have to pay to get to the stations. It's ridiculous, but thousands of people do it every day because this liberal run state refuses to build new freeways to handle the growing population. The freeways to San Francisco and San Jose move at a crawl pace much of the day.
Round trip is 80 miles and you think that $9 isn't almost free? Check out the plane fares for trip like that and I think you will see how cheap $9 is.
And 3 or 4 years ago I read a Cato Institute report about government subsidized Amtrack. The amount the government pays per passenger is absolutely staggering. If I remember right, it was in the HUNDREDS of dollars. Not a very efficient use of my tax dollars.
Interesting number.......I am curious how that number stacks up against the subsidies we provide airlines through terminal and runway construction or the subsidies we pay for car usage through freeway construction.
There's got to be a better way. But until someone finds it, I'll stick to my car, thank you very much.
Your comment says it all. That's the primary reason why freeways are so crowded. Most people prefer their cars rather than public tranportation or even carpooling. So long as that's true, freeways will be jammed particularly in CA where commutes are much longer and sprawl is much worse than other parts of the country.
And btw, new freeways are not the solution and there are good reasons why progressive groups have stopped their construction. First and foremost, in most parts of the country, within 1-2 years of opening, freeways are at capacity. In CA, they usually are at capacity at the time they opening. In fact, the federal gov't found that as soon as a new freeway was announced the land along the right of way would begin to be developed. By the time of a freeway's opening, there were tons of people living in what had been mostly sparsely populated country.
Secondly, freeways help undermine cities and encourage sprawl, hurting the quality of life rather than improving it. Thirdly, freeways encourage the deterioration of the neighborhoods they pass through. Noise and smog pollutants makes living near one a virtual nightmare. Fourthly, they have become very expensive to build. Initially, they were relatively cheap to build because they were build mostly in open country but thanks to the original freeways most new freeway right of ways are in build up areas........thus cost per mile has grown dramatically in the last 20 years. Fifthly, they significantly add to the air pollution of most cities and are a health hazard.
CA is now going the way of toll roads and other areas of the country are starting to ape them. That may be a short term solution. Eventually, more drastic measures may need to be taken. |
