Public Trans Losses Derail Green Effort?

Recall the lynchpin public transportation is to green movement’s war on fossil fuels, then, consider how pub trans systems in NY & SF are losing $ like a sieve thanks to fewer riders, derailed gov’t funding AND rising crime …

Anyone for progressive no cash bail reform like the one just passed (but temporarily blocked from taking effect by a judge) in the midst of a crime wave in, let’s say, Sweet Home Chicago? “The more you lose a ridership base, the more difficult it becomes to maintain a level of service that people are used to,” P.S. Sriraj, director of the Urban Transportation Center at UIC, told the WSJ. No kidding. Do urban planners at city hall ever talk to their bro’s at the State’s Attorney’s Office in the Daley Center?

As the WSJ notes, however, rising crime is just one reason public transportation is “going off the rails.” The transit authorities in our biggest cities have been “leaning on emergency funding to plug budget holes & prop up operations. In all, Congress approved about $69 billion in 3 separate Covid relief packages in 2020 & 2021.” But, of course, that placebo is coming to an end as is the pandemic. Meanwhile, many folks still are working in downtown offices only Tuesday thru Thursday, further exacerbating the lost revenue from lost ridership. Who’d of thunk? Anyone who can see past their nose?

Davd Soul