(Warning: rant ahead) Why I throw my hands up at mass transit

[earnan]

I like the idea of mass transit, and I bus to work on occasion, but sometimes I just have to throw my hands up and wonder.

Read this article: http://www.startribune.com/local/east/104488439.htmlThere is a new line running from Forest Lake area to downtown St. Paul. Good idea. Lots of traffic for the bus to get past

Comments

[eatsoylentgreen]

mass transit is not supposed to be for-profit. Just like health care. People need to get to work regardless of their ability to pay huge amounts.

[earnan]

No matter the cost?

[eatsoylentgreen]

well no, you have to manage costs, and it makes you wonder why it costs almost a million to run a few buses out there... how do they get that figure anyways?

[earnan]

You see my problem. Based on 2008 (last year available) taxpayer data, of the Minnesotans who actually pay taxes that is $.92 per taxpayer. For a bus route for 100 people.

I support people being employed, I support reducing congestion, fuel waste, emissions, and wasted time. All of the above could be suited by those 100 people taking a job in Forest Lake instead of St. Paul or moving to St. Paul.

Don't even let it cross your mind that I think we should tell people where to work an live, that is far from the case. I do mean to say that if someone makes that choice, I don't necessarily want to subsidize it at the level of cost that this story claims.

[eatsoylentgreen]

If it's anything like the bus service running to the exurbs (Prior Lake, for instance) it'll be 3 buses bringing people in to the downtown, arriving downtown at 7:45, 8:30 and 9:00, and bringing them back, 8 hours later.

100 people... 3 trips, hmmm... I wonder if they include people twice if they take them to the city and then bring them back home...

[earnan]

The story says 100 people each way, so all of my figures above are based on 200 adult rides per day, 22 work days on average per month.

[earnan]

Don't forget, they already had the buses sitting in mothballs...they were used to mirror the NorthStar line, but now that the trains are running, they weren't in use. So really, it is drivers, gas, logistics (schedules, signs, Metro Transit Police, maintenance, etc.).

[queenfrizzle]

Mostly, the overhead is in people cost. There's a lot that goes into transit planning, and there's this' and that's' that need done. Usually, that amount of money is a test-run setup. As they said in the article, they're going to be gauging the demand over a year-long trial with hopes that interest will pick up. So there goes money into public-transit advertising

[twindaw]

wow, I grew up about 25 min NorthEast of Forest Lake...and this line would've been really great-- but yeah, the traffic...There was rideshare when I was living up there and commuting to Conseco every day....but we never did it because of the amount of extra time we would've had to spend on the road each day.