Abel Collins: RIPTA’s where we must stand and fight | Contributors | projo.com | The Providence Journal: Contrary to the myth, the truth is that the U.S. economy is bigger than it has ever been. The gross domestic product is more than $14 trillion. As a country we have never been richer, but that money is more and more concentrated in the hands of a small privileged group. Does it really make sense to coddle them and cut services for the rest of us? Since our economy is so dependent on consumer spending, doesn’t it make sense both morally and economically to give help where it is needed?
...To be brief, public transit is where we stand and fight, because it is where we can win. Winning will boost the morale of the compassionate majority and restore some faith in fairness. At the same time it will demonstrate that investing in a public service is good for everybody. Furthermore, winning will give us momentum for whatever cause comes next, and there are many waiting.
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We need a no-nonsense, assertive advocate for progressive ideals to open up new opportunities for Hartford. We, as a community, must unite and pull ourselves up by our boot straps to turn this city around. I, like many of you, still believe in Hartford. We still believe that we can seize on opportunities for real job growth. We want to see a well rounded and quality education available to our children, quality infrastructure, renewable energy initiatives with green collar jobs, and a fair shake for homeowners that are struggling. Join him on Facebook
Despite suburbs’ swan song, transit money withers - Boston.com: Climate change demands that Americans drive less and use more mass transit, while the specter of ever-rising gas prices provides the economic incentives to follow that environmental imperative. These forces will only grow over time. It’s an easy narrative to follow — except in Washington, where the pitched warfare over budgets and deficits threatens to rob cities and towns of their ability to become future-proof.
...The budget deal cut $2.9 billion from Obama’s ambitious high-speed rail program, leaving the president without a penny to spend on the initiative this year. It also cut New Starts, the program that pays for most new transit construction, to $400 million below last year’s level. Neither cut is paradigm-shifting, but each sets a worrisome precedent. Overall federal spending levels have nowhere to go but down, and this year’s low baseline could become next year’s ceiling.
The transit advocacy group Reconnecting America recently catalogued $233 billion in backlogged transit projects across the country, including $77 billion in the Northeast. The MBTA’s Green Line extension, Blue-Line-and-Red-Line connector, and South Coast rail project are all on the list. At the current spending pace, this backlog would take 73 years to fund.
...I’m a huge fan of car sharing, mostly because it upends the typical model of car ownership. Typically, owning a car involves a lot of fixed costs – costs that you pay regardless of whether you drive the car a single mile or 20,000 miles a year. These include the cost of the car, insurance, taxes and registration fees, emissions inspections and the like. The variable cost of owning a car – fuel and maintenance – are comparatively of little consequence on a per trip basis.
The effect of this is that once you own a car you have a very strong incentive to use it for most trips. I vividly recall arguing with a friend who claimed that it was cheaper for him to drive across Burlington than it was for him to pay $1.25 to board a local bus. Countless times I’ve been told, ‘I really wanted to take the train, but it was just so much cheaper to drive.’ Of course, in both cases driving was the more expensive option, once the fixed costs of owning a car were taken into account. Carfreebtv
With carsharing, all of your costs are paid on a per trip basis. This creates an incentive to drive only when necessary or especially convenient and use alternatives for all other trips. I’d rather take the train or a bus for longer trips and would hate to be in a situation where I’d feel compelled to drive long distances because it was “cheaper.”...
