Posted on 04/09/2018 9:22:34 PM PDT by BBell
A city government that would drag everyone down to its level.
Its like the old saying of city government goes: if at first you dont succeed, tax something that is succeeding.
Members of the Washington, D.C. government have suggested a way to prop up its failing Metro system while hamstringing its competitor. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently proposed a nearly 400 percent tax increase on ridesharing services, increasing the fee that users pay from 1 percent to 4.75 percent. This would increase the tax on a $10 trip from ten cents to forty-seven cents.
Local officials are proposing to use this tax increase to prop up the D.C. Metro system, run by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). According to D.C. Council Member Jack Evans, Uber and Lyft are part of the transit system here, and so they should help pay to fix Metro because theyre benefiting from Metros demise.
Make no mistake: Metro is a disaster. Residents of the D.C. area have developed a sense of camaraderie around being subjected to the same delays, single-tracking, and fare increases for years. Chronicling WMATAs failures has become a city tradition, with the most dedicated hashtag being known, fittingly, as Unsuck DC Metro. There is even a website dedicated to informing visitors whether or not the Metro is on fire too often, visitors are met with a morose Im afraid so or unfortunately.
The statistics bear out D.C. residents anti-Metro sentiment. In 2016, just 70 percent of rail trips arrived on time. After nearly two years of SafeTrack, WMATAs effort to catch up on badly needed track maintenance through fare increases and track section shutdowns, D.C. residents are still waiting for improvement.
A review of a 16-day shutdown of a critical juncture where three lines meet in 2016 found that the stretch still fell
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
They do think so, no sarcasm intended.
Same good experience for me when professional development took me to NIST in Gaithersburg MD in 2003, 2004, & 2005. My experience included arriving at either BWI or Reagan, going to Union Station & taking the Red Line to G-burg, returning one evening to do the monuments. All three times, I caught a ride with a local for the return trip to the airport. Way better experience than Chicago and Atlanta.
NYC’s subways have gone way downhill in the last 3-4 years. My daughter teaches in the City and having students stranded on broken-down or delayed trains has gone from an occasion to the routine. The MTA is hated more than ever. She’s leaving NYC and not at all sorry about it.
Don’t laugh to hard, D.C. once proposed a tax on those who wanted to move OUT of D.C. and a payroll Tax on anyone working in D.C. that didn’t live there.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
DC needs to be fumigated..
One of my friends used to work in one of the shops servicing metro busses in Seattle. He made the comment one day that it would be cheaper to pick up all the passengers in limos than purchase and maintain that bus fleet.
I know lyft and Uber are making a dent in Taxi business. I forgot to even consider what it might be doing to mass transit.
FWIW, I’m 64 and only rode in a taxi once in my life - until last year. We used Lyft about 8 times. Loved it.
Ah, yes... the DC Ghettro.
Nonsense. Metro is not a disaster. Our traffic is a disaster and the traffic is only going to get worse. Anyone who doubts that should spend a week driving I-66, I-95, I-395, I-270 or the Beltway during "rush hour" -- i.e., roughly 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. And the major bailout routes are just as bad.
Metro does suffer from a major deferred maintenance problem, which is to say, a governance problem. The current mess has been predicted for many years. For literally decades, Metro management has been warning about deferred maintenance. But year after year, come budget time, the authorities prioritize union pay and benefits over maintenance, while the multiple jurisdictions quarrel over the funding formula. It's as if the Titanic deliberately set course for the iceberg the moment it left Southampton. It took a near-disastrous fire a couple of years ago to snap the politicos out of their stupor. We're now doing a major rehab, which is causing disruption.
There are nearly ten million people in the Washington-Baltimore Combined Statistical Area. There is no easy, silver bullet solution to the transportation mess. The car addicts are now talking about adding yet another lane to various of our rush hour gridlock corridors, which will burn through far more money than rehabbing Metro will cost, and will have zero effect on relieving the mess. The reality is that people are going to have to start living closer to their jobs. The most important "transportation" priority should be focusing on building neighborhoods that make this an attractive and affordable option. This includes fixing the public schools, which I believe will require full school choice. Vouchering the schools would be the best single thing we could do to reduce transportation gridlock; people shouldn't have to flee to Urbana, Spottsylvania County or Loudon County to find a public school system that they can trust
“In-and-Out Burger is unfairly benefiting from the yuckiness of McDonalds burgers; In-and-Out Burger should pay McDonald’s as compensation.”
That's a very unpopular opinion among people who cannot afford guarded and gated communities, and Sidwell Friends for their children. It may be a correct opinion but unpopular.
I say moved the jobs. Break up the federal government, at least to other parts of the US, before DC looks like Trantor (from the Foundation series).
I think no maintenance was conducted in that 25 years.
There was an enormous amount of transportation funding in the recent budget deal. Surely DC is in line for some of that.
I assume it has declined a lot in 25+ years? Or was I missing something back then?
Throw the cash down the WMATA black hole! Wheeee!
My own town Nashville starts voting tomorrow on a massive transportation boondoggle. But in the case of DC, the metro is there already. They need to fix it, and that will cost money, but it’s the shortest path to making the city work. Would you say shutting it down would help shorten the commutes?
LOL! Best post!
I’d say stop throwing good money after bad would help shorten the commutes.
Riiight. That's kind of like continually voting for the "R" because you can never, ever, EVER vote for the "D". Meanwhile, the "R" continues to get worse every election cycle.
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