Public Transit Is Underfunded Because the Wealthy Don’t Rely on It

[KamaAina]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/12/brt-middle-class/

While it’s great to have a system that improves transportation access for the majority of a city’s population, BRT’s mass appeal could — ironically — be a political concern that prevents its adoption, at least in the U.S. As Alex Pareene wrote in Salon, public transit often suffers because politicians and donors rarely rely on it. The results show in the states, whose existing BRT systems lag behind those in cities around the world.

Even in densely populated and traditionally liberal cities like New York and Minneapolis, politicians neglect transit. And “because they don’t know or interact with or receive checks from people who rely on it every day, there’s almost no hope for cheap, efficient mass transit options anywhere,” Pareene wrote.

Indeed, the Embarq report echoes the public transit wealth gap, and cites that most BRT systems are often paid for by tax revenue collected from those who may never ride it. Bogota’s famed TransMilenio was financed by increased gasoline taxes, and all the systems required both substantial investment and support from municipalities.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. Not only do they not ride it;

they despise the people who do ride it.

In Minneapolis, a lot of the opposition to transit projects comes from suburbanites who imagine that only dark-skinned people ride it.

[KamaAina]

3. That attitude is hardly confined to Minneapolis

Why do you think the DC Metro doesn't go to Georgetown? Or Atlanta's MARTA rail to Cobb County (Newt country)? Because "now those people will be able to get out here".

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. In Toronto,

There was a fully funded plan to increase above ground LRT, but the suburbanites wanted an over priced subway instead so they didn't have to dodge streetcar tracks or get stuck behind them. Now it looks like they've gotten their way, but they're screaming blue murder that their taxes must go up to pay for it.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Mass Transit And Right-Wing Mythology

One of the main reasons public transit is so woefully underfunded here in the US is due to right-wing mythology. Right-wingers have spent literally decades building on the myth that they (right-wingers) are opposed to "big government" and such bagatelles as public schools, art museums, public parks, publicly-owned hospitals, and government-operated mass transit systems are costly, unnecessary, and a waste of taxpayer resources. It doesn't matter whether these memes are true or not, what matters is the fact that many of these politicians believe these memes and so do many of the people who vote for them, regardless of inconvenient and disconcerting evidence to the contrary.

Right-wing myths concerning mass transit have been further embellished beyond the "it's unnecessary" meme. To right-wingers, nobody rides mass transit, regardless of the evidence in front of their eyes and their own experiences when they're forced to ride it. They also firmly believe that everyone loves their cars so much that they'll never use mass transit, even when faced with horrendous traffic jams and lack of cheap or free parking or even lack of parking at their destinations.

Right-wingers have made certain exceptions regarding public transportation. Despite their hostility to "big government" mass transit, they line up like little troopers for more (government-funded) highway projects and public airports, despite the fact that both of these modes are heavily subsidized by the taxpayers.

It is not simply "the rich" that believe in these myths. These myths are also supported by members of the upper-middle class, many members of the suburban and exurban middle classes, and all too many "shirt-sleeve" voters.

I could go on to explain the links between right-wing hostility to mass transit and the links between right-wing politicians, big oil, and the highway lobby and links between right-wingers and their links to suburban and exurban developers, but that would require time I don't have.