Many transit issues, one solution to all of them.

Tweet

Our city transit system is lousy to say the least, horrible service, disrespectful drivers, rude passengers, unsanitary, the list could go on and on. However, there are more issues than just that, and it's always about money with the big cheese. The main issue right now is service cuts. The system wants to cut service to 47 bus routes, these routes supposedly have less than 10 riders per hour at the time of day that they want to cut the service. There's been a huge outcry over this, especially for the girls who do roller derby and depend on one route that's slated to be cut. If it's cut, it means that they'll have to walk through a dark park to get to the main road, the area is poorly lit and it's not in the safest area of the city. Of course, they could always think about changing locations to make it easier for them, but that's besides the point. So we go back to the cuts. There's clearly a reason for the lack of ridership, namely the high cost of taking transit. At $3.00 per ride, that's more than most people would like to pay, and it's more than most of the country pays for bus fare anyways. The cost of living is high, wages low, bus fares high. See the problem with that? $25/week for 10 transit tokens really adds up. $120/month for a transit pass. For those with low incomes, this doesn't make any sense, it's not realistic for them to continue working if they can't even afford to get to their jobs. How about the low income people on income supports? $574 a month to live on doesn't cut it, especially if they need to go somewhere and can't afford to. They need to look for work, but how can you if you only get that much, and most of it goes for rent and food? Poor service and disrespectful drivers are the norm up here it seems. You can't have drivers who aren't yakking on their cell phones or driving erratically and in an unsafe manner, oh no, this isn't possible here. You can wait up to an hour for a bus, yet see 4 or 5 of them piled up behind each other on another route, then see the bus you get on go out of service because it's way behind schedule. When that happens, a lot of riders get angry. Lately, we've been plagued with several rush hour incidents on the subway system, delays that force people to walk to their destination or take an overcrowded shuttle bus only to be very late for work or school. Yesterday alone, there were 2 such incidents, both within about an hour of each other, on different lines, but it affected a lot of people trying to get to work. You have to wonder what's going on to cause so many delays. I understand traffic accidents on the streets, but the excuses in the subways? So back to the issue at hand since I've gotten slightly off topic. The biggest concern is the price of transit. Drivers who have been reprimanded for talking on cell phones, they still get paid even if they're suspended from work.(Same goes for cops who are in prison, they still get paid). Drivers assault passengers, are suspended from duty, yet still get their pay. Drivers get about $30/hr to sit on their butts, no matter if they're working or not, and this doesn't help a financially strapped transit system in any way. The union bosses make a ton of money to do nothing at all, the pensions for retiring personnel far exceed what the system takes in for profit every year, yet they still pay out these pensions like they could afford them. Several times a day, there are new buses breaking down on the roads. This means a call in for a heavy tow, and having to find the manufacturing mechanic, not the transit mechanic to come in and repair the bus. These new buses MUST be serviced by the mechanics that manufactured the buses. I'm serious about that. So it costs them double the amount in repair costs, rather than training the union mechanics and saving a little bit of money. Older buses stay on the roads longer, they were built to last, yet I see hundreds of these buses just sitting doing nothing. How about selling some of them to developing countries and killing 2 birds with one stone? Making money and helping another country get a transit system up and running. Nope, they'll never think about that, it seems more cost effective to let these buses just sit and rust away. So, on to cutting of bus routes and the high fares. After reading deep into the issue of the route cuts, I realize that not only does ridership decrease, it decreases more and more every time we have a fare hike. People simply can't afford the transit system anymore. Rather than cut the routes, why not decrease the fares and increase ridership? In keeping with the increase in ridership, why not make it more difficult for sneaky passengers to get into the system for free? They have done away with the special constable service in favor for more expensive policing services, which doesn't save money when you think about it. People still cheat the system, it's quite easy to sneak onto the bus platforms at many subway stations without having to pay your fare. They need to curb that issue, and prevent it from happening. If I had to guess, I'd say that they were losing hundreds of thousands in fares by letting people sneak in for free. Others will go through the collector booths when no one's on duty and not pay, how is this right? First of all, where is the collector to begin with? Why is (s)he not manning the booth and preventing this? If fares were lowered, there would be less of this. Drivers would be more respectful as passengers would be more civilized and would pay the proper fares. Saving money is the most important issue here, but there are better ways to do this than cutting an already crappy service, don't you agree?