Saturday, December 3, 2011

Mass Transit Service: Reality (Cash-Strapped Cities) vs. Fantasy (Federal Law)


Cash-Strapped Cities Struggle to Maintain Mass Transit. (The Atlantic, 9/27/2011)

Excerpt: It’s no surprise that mass transit agencies are cutting back service and raising fares. The same thing is happening to public services across the board. But the impact of cuts in this area on the employment situation can be quite dire. A recent University of Milwaukee analysis, for example, found that proposed cuts will cause loss of bus service to 997 employers in the Milwaukee area. A decent chunk of the approximately 8 percent of Milwaukee area workers who rely on mass transit for their commute may be literally unable to get to work. Many more will experience increased costs and inconvenience—longer waits, higher fares—and the same story is playing out across the country.

Petri, Ribble seek flexibility in federal funds for Northeastern transit systems. (Appleton Post-Crescent, 12/2/2011)

Excerpt: By law, urbanized areas of 200,000 or more people are barred from using formula-based federal assistance money for operations. The law is based on the notion that metropolitan areas of that size are able to generate their own operating funds.

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