US in #autosprawl meltdown, can't afford subsidies

Maine Public: "“If government can’t provide safe, efficient infrastructure, what can it do?” McLean asks. “So people, I think, understand the need for money, for funding of infrastructure projects.”

But McLean, who co-chairs the legislature’s Transportation Committee, also believes that it doesn’t go far enough. He says the state needs to come up with some additional revenue sources beyond the gas tax in order to avoid borrowing nearly every year to to fix roads. He says even if voters approve question six the state will not have enough money on hand to make all the needed repairs accumulated because of deferred maintenance."

Car culture spends billions on cars, leaves poor, old, disabled stranded

Bangor Daily News: "The transit study called for running a bus on an hourly basis on weekdays from Wal-Mart in Thomaston to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport with multiple stops in between.

But without government subsidies, the fees would have been too great to make it work, Karker said.

Christopher Merritt, owner of Schooner Bay Taxi, also served on the committee. While on the panel, he expressed reservation that a regular bus service would be successful."

In Maine, #publictransit allows seniors to be part of community

Bangor Daily News: "“And it makes you more part of the community,” she said. “You get more connected, more aware of our similarities.”

Kelly is a member of Transportation for All, a Bangor-based group facilitated by Food AND Medicine, a Brewer nonprofit, that aims to increase use of the city’s Community Connector bus system and, ultimately, expand its service area and hours of operation. The bus system also serves Brewer, Hampden, Orono, Veazie and Old Town."

http://www.bangormaine.gov/communityconnector