As a transportation engineer with some background in public transportation I find this analysis about as useful as Rand Paul’s comments on the Civil Rights Act. There are many people who depend on urban mass transit as a basic means of mobility. I realize the guy sitting in the suburbs with a Hummer and a mortgage supported by my tax dollars doesn’t care a wit about an elderly woman who cannot drive any more, or a young couple who can’t make two car payments. I ride public transit every work day and see these people. They count out their quarters and pay their fare, which is more than I can say for a lot of people in this society.
The absolute lack of empathy and understanding of the economic condition of our society in this article is just stunning. I’m waiting for the Cato Institute to write about all the tax subsidies for the general aviation airports that support a handful of private planes and serve little additional public purpose, or all the special legislation that benefits the investment banks.
There is nothing “conservative” about a policy that ignores the basic needs of persons who have no other means of mobility than walking. If these think tanks would give out of their theoretical settings and spend some time with real people on our mass transit systems they might come up with some constructive improvements rather than the shallow economic analysis presented here.
“There is nothing “conservative” about a policy that ignores the basic needs of persons who have no other means of mobility than walking.”
How much should we spend on these folks?
Yet, that is exactly current public transportation policy. They cut routes and services as they see fit.
Those very people you care about then are left with nothing.
A private transportation market would serve those very people for less money, without federal interference in local matters, and without the absurd and cruel distortions that government intervention creates.