"Transit Just Isn't That Important" (Obvious Conclusion to Bus Strike)

Star Tribune ^ | March 6, 2004 | Laurie Blake

[wallcrawlr]

The bus strike was quiet on all fronts Friday -- until the Minnesota Taxpayers League lobbed a grenade into the battlefield.

"Transit just isn't that important to the smooth functioning of the Twin Cities transportation system," said league President David Strom. "That's the obvious conclusion to be drawn from the lack of chaos engendered by the bus-system strike."

In a community already debating the bus strike and the issue of health-care costs, the comment added a new political dimension to the strike by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 against Metro Transit, operated by the Metropolitan Council.

Strom, whose organization has been an aggressive voice against raising taxes and for less government spending, said he would prefer to spend bus and rail money on road improvements.

"Even in areas highly transit dependent -- such as the central business districts of St. Paul and Minneapolis -- there just doesn't seem to be much difference in traffic when buses are running and when buses are not," he said. "The bus strike shows decisively that proponents of transit are simply not telling the truth when they say that transit ridership reduces congestion. It simply doesn't."

About 11 million trips are made each day in the metro area, 3 percent of them by bus. City and state officials have reported no obvious effects on traffic attributable to the strike. The Regional Traffic Management Center, which has freeway surveillance cameras, said traffic moved routinely on Thursday morning, the first day of the strike. Thursday night, freeway levels were light with the exception of Interstate Hwy. 35W south of downtown Minneapolis. It was slow going Friday because of the snow.

Transit advocates acknowledged the lack of traffic jams but drew different conclusions.

"This whole strike is about our ability to mobilize our work force in a time of crisis, not about the value and effectiveness of transit," said Teresa Wernecke, director of the Downtown Minneapolis Traffic Management Organization, which promotes transit use downtown. "This isn't a test on transit. It's a test on employers and the work force to be resourceful."

Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, a champion of transit at the Legislature, said: "We don't see all the problems the strike is causing -- individual problems in individual lives. It's not like an explosion in downtown Minneapolis. They struggle in the privacy of their homes and offices, and it's very hard to see the collective impact. But that does not mean that the impact is not severe."

Strom asserted that mass transit is a bad deal for taxpayers. Hausman conceded that the lack of a large, visible wallop from the strike will make it harder to argue for transit funding at the Legislature. "It will add fodder to the ideological opposition," she said.

A rebuttal

Transit for Liveable Communities, a community advocacy group, also lashed back at Strom. "Transit provides access and independence for the young, elderly, mobility-impaired, and people who would rather not drive," said Barb Thoman, program director. "The Texas Transportation Institute, which is hardly a pro-transit outfit, estimates that transit's benefit to our region in congestion relief is $227 million a year in time and fuel savings."

In a rare moment, Strom's comments bound the union and the Met Council together in opposition to the Taxpayers League, which was founded by a small group of wealthy Republican conservatives.

Said Union President Ron Lloyd: "The Taxpayers League -- I'm not sure they're in touch with what's really going on around here. The business community is for transit."

Met Council Chairman Peter Bell said Strom's conclusions are simplisitic. "A third of our customer base is transit-dependent. In addition, people are always able to make short-term adjustments. The more relative question is the long-term impact that this would have, and I would argue that there certainly would be one."

As the strike moves into its third day today, no new contract talks were scheduled for the weekend, Bell, Lloyd and state mediator Alan Olson said. Wages and health insurance are key sticking points in the contract dispute.

Union Vice President Michelle Sommers said picketing went as planned Friday. Union members kept barrels burning all night to stay warm and managers sent out coffee and hot chocolate to several garages.

Lloyd called on Bell and Gov. Tim Pawlenty to "sit down and speak with us face to face and negotiate a settlement fair to our members that will end this strike."

[tom paine 2]

Most of the busses up here in Green Bay are running around empty or near empty. They are just pumpiong diesel smoke into the air for no good reason.

[akorahil]

"Transit provides access and independence for the young, elderly, mobility-impaired, and people who would rather not drive"
Uh, I'd rather not pay taxes to fund your buses for those who would rather not drive, and I'm S.O.L. on that front...

[justrepublican]

Union members kept barrels burning all night to stay warm and managers sent out coffee and hot chocolate to several garages.

Those darn bus drivers just can't go a day with out putting out a bad smell.

[Aeronaut]

Transit for Liveable Communities, a community advocacy group...,

Sound the foghorn. (All you GLers will get it.)

[realpatriot71]

IMhO public transit is not a bad idea in and of itself - paying Union workers outrageously high wages for the same job most people are doing for half is just bad business. I hope they break the Union in Minn./St.P just like the grocery stores did to the Union here is So. Cal.

[akorahil]

We get it. We also think this whole situation is "B" as in "B", and "S" as in "S".
:)

[Timm]

John Stossel discusses private van companies in NYC in his new book. Apparently, some enterprising new immigrants bought vans and would give rides to people, as an alternative to the bus. The price was either the same or less than the bus-- I forget which, and I don't want to go open the book-- and the van would take people *exactly* where they wanted to go.

Of course, the vans were highly popular, luring many people away from the busses.

You can guess the ending. When union bus drivers learned of the van service, the city came down hard on these drivers. It wasn't "safe" for these non-union drivers to haul passengers around-- though, of course, the van drivers' licenses were indication the state thought it was safe enough for them to drive the vans around with non-paying passengers. These drivers "leeched" passengers away from the busses, etc.

So, of course, the van drivers were bullied out of existence and out of a demanded job, the customers were herded back on to the slower, and less convenient busses. And now NYC is a haven again for union bus drivers-- Democrat social progress in action.

Hooray.

[Cboldt]

"This whole strike is about our ability to mobilize our work force in a time of crisis, not about the value and effectiveness of transit," said Teresa Wernecke, director of the Downtown Minneapolis Traffic Management Organization ...

That is quite the admission; not about the value and effectiveness of transit indeed. Heck, that should always be on the table.

[logician2u]

You'll be interested to know that a couple of enterprising African immigrants are doing the same thing in Denver and, so far at least, getting away with it.

How these guys figure to make money at $1/ride is what has me baffled. They've got a 9-passenger van to pay for, plus insurance and $1.50/gal gasoline.

Even though lots of people ride RTD's bus, fares don't come close to covering operating costs, much less the cost of equipment. And the transit agency doesn't pay income, sales, property or fuel taxes as private entrepreneurs do.

I'll have to get Stossel's book. Thanks for the reminder.