Speed Gibson – new to the world of seceding from the tax-paying car community – notes the bad news:
The Twin Cities slept through the last Transit strike and barely noticed the one before that. But now ridership is up and the union knows it. They voted down the latest offer, 19 to 1. A strike is possible in about a month, just in time for the State Fair and the Republican National Convention.
Oh, wouldn’t that be great news?
Public Transit provides a very small percentage of the total number of passenger miles. Most don’t use it at all. But if you’re a regular, you might want to arrange an alternative. As ineffective as the last strike was, it did last 45 days.
Any doubt about fares going up another 50 cents next year?
Government in action; “people are using the product! Jack up the price!”
And after each strike, ridership drops. Unlike most conservatives, I am a big supporter of mass transit, but if the union pulls this, then I say vote NO on the fare increase and let’s cut service (and therefore employees).
This is why the knee jerk anti-car fetish is rediculous. (Sorry Mitch, and I know you take a lot of heat from the anti-bike and transit folks–that’s just as dumb). What is important is that there are choices with some basis in the reality that cars are always going to be the dominant mode of transportation in the TC given the way that it has evolved. If you are “transit dependent” you are at the mercy of government and the unions. And frankly, that’s the way they like it. If you are transit independent, have a car, bike, bus route near your house etc. you can make the choice, and a different one every day if you like. Nobody can dictate to you when you have to leave for work.
This is exactly why we fought municipal garbage collection several years ago. The cities (New Hope, Crystal, Golden Valley) claimed it would be less wear and tear on the streets. I had visions of mountains of garbage ala Chicago and New York every time the union collectors felt like giving themselves a raise.
Government in action; “people are using the product! Jack up the price!”
And that fare hike is not going to go to cover the deficit of running the darn boondoggle, but into the pockets of union members, who now have been handed an upper hand. This is just a rise of yet another MEA-type union hegemony. The pattern has been estabished, who’s to dispute that this is exactly what will happen if gov coopts health care? Oh, yeah, the usual suspects that never learn from the past, and present.
If you make it illegal for transit employees to strike they just do it anyway & make amnesty a condition of resuming their jobs. This happened in NY a few years ago.
What a second…. How about the idea that people should PAY for the government they CONSUME?!?
I am ALL FOR raising the fare. Anytime we can get the people who consume more government than they pay for to cough up more is just fine with me.
Hell, raise fares a dollar.
JS
When you get in bed with the devil you’re going do more than sleep.
Mass Transit is socialism. It has a limited useful place for the young, old and infirm in the densely populated city. Any expansion beyond this just creates more opportunity for abuse.
I hope that transit workers strike, they need to be seen as the money grubbing communists that they are. It’s also good for people to realize that they don’t need transit and that transit DOESN’T reduce congestion.
Mass Transit is like welfare, it should be applied very, very sparingly.
I was thinking that “manure” would be a better word than “welfare” in your comment, Tracy.
Let the fares rise, and let the union pound sand.