Eric, I admire your pragmatic approach and agree that a REAL cost-benefit analysis of the bus system should be done. One problem that I see is that what you have called a " 'cost to society' estimated hypothetical calculation" needs to come out of the hypothetical and become a a"cost-to-society cradle-to-grave analysis" that takes into account the REAL costs that continue to be ignored in our economic system status quo (I understand that this is easier said than done).
We love to pretend that just because we don't acknowledge a cost it doesn't "exist in the real world". Drivers do pay taxes that cover building and maintaining the physical infrastructure for autos (streets, bridges, signs, etc) but they (by they I mean we if we drive cars too) DON'T pay for the costs that become re-distributed to everyone- remediation of air pollution, soil & water pollution, noise pollution, and health-care that are associated with the manufacture and use of cars in our society. We need to re-prioritize, re-examine, and re-think our approach to transportation and what we consider a "cost". Maybe, just maybe mass-transit riders shouldn't have to equally share the burden of cleaning up after the rest of us if they don't contribute as much to the mess! These are just my personal thoughts and are happily swayed by others' well-reasoned arguments. -india *********************** India Viola Stretton Lab Zoology Research Bldg. 1117 W. Johnson St. Madison, WI 53706 608.262.3336 *********************** "How can we learn from our mistakes if we don't first acknowledge them?" -Anonymous "We exist in the bacterial world, not bacteria in ours" -Stuart Levy ----- Original Message ----- From: Eric Westhagen <[email protected]> Date: Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:08 pm Subject: Re: [Bikies] Bus Passes] To: BikiesSubmissions <[email protected]> > > > > > > > > To: Dar, Dorthy Krause, > > > > Certainly anything is possible and preposterous in funding costs of > certain non-economic public services. But paying for individual > municipal transit systems from a State wide gas tax increase is a real > stretch of the redistribution format. Alternatively, redistribution > from the graduated income taxes is equally far fetched. Closer to home > would be a city only surcharge for income taxes, but would not be > legal. Lets face it. The bus lines should pay for themselves. Either > find lower cost vehicles or lower cost management. Every municipally > owned transit system is bloated in that regard. When the DC Transit > was forced to become municipal, the management size instantly > quadrupled. Why hasn't someone presented the personal break even point > between fares and a person actually driving and parking. That is not > with all this "cost to society" estimated hypothetical calculation? I > am sure it would still be a "personal bargain" over car expenses if > rates were raised to cover the deficits. > > > > Eric > > > > Dar Ward wrote: > > > > I'm not an expert on gas taxes...but I believe that those taxes tend to > flow into federal and state coffers to be used for whatever programs > those governments have designated. One of those locations (the only > one?) is the Highway Trust Fund...which is used in small part to fund > transit. According to this website > (http://www.artba.org/economics_research/reports/gas_tax_history.htm) > in the late 1990s of an 18 cent tax about 3 cents went to transit. > > -Dar > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Krause, Dorothy > > Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 3:16 PM > > To: '[email protected]' > > Subject: Re: [Bikies] bus fare increase > > > > Thanks for that, Robbie. Along the same lines, when I went to MATC, > apparently I would have been eligible for a free bus pass, tho I didn't > get one because I drove. I think the UW has an arrangement like that as > well. How do those work? > > > > I've also wondered whether transit gets gas tax money? It would seem > that would be a relative fair way of spreading out the cost, as well as > being a bit of a 'sin tax' on us auto drivers. > > > > Thanks for info! > > > > Dorothy > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
