If perchance you come across this blog with Google, please be aware that I seldom post here anymore. I have a new, more active blog:
www.RiderBlog.NotLong.com
While this blogger.com "Rider Rant" area has interesting posts from much of 2009, all my new stuff goes to the new blog.
Two reasons for the switch (including the "leftie" factor):
1. Arcane formatting differences.
2. Open Salon is a big leftie blogging area. I don't allow comments on my blog items (HUGE waste of my time). I'm driving 'em CRAZY, since I don't give them the "COMMENT" forum to post their pathetic rebuttals. Their frustration comes through to me as a few enraged progressives frantically search me out via Google and vent their collectivist spleens. Life is good.
BTW, if you haven't looked into using "RSS feeds" to read the ever-updating news and blogs -- you must do so now. Much more efficient way to educate yourself, and to waste your time more productively. As an intro, I recommend an informative if slightly gonzo 3 minute YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
For my "RSS reader," I use www.igoogle.com as my browser home page. This Google option offers many, many other neat services as well (all on the same page) -- stock and commodity quotes, weather for multiple locations, calculator, daily cartoons, etc.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Study reveals San Diego trolley folly
Check out the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE article of 27 September, 2009 on commuting in San Diego County. The story got little consideration, but is a blockbuster when it comes to justifying our massive trolley expenditures. The madness of this wasteful spending becomes readily apparent.
The article reveals that 90.9% drive to work. Only 3.5% use public transportation.
Of that 3.5%, only 9% of these public transit users ride the trolleys. That comes to 0.315% of all county commuters ride our multi-billion dollar trolley boondoggle. Almost 9 times as many commuters ride the buses as ride the trolleys.
It gets worse. SANDAG admits that about ¾ of the trolley riders used to take the bus. Hence only about 0.07875% of the trolley commuters are former car commuters. For you numerically impaired, that’s less than EIGHT ONE-HUNDREDTHS OF ONE PERCENT of former car commuters now do part or all of their work commute on a trolley.
For this minuscule usage, we have spent (as Carl Sagan used to so elegantly intone) “billions and billions” of dollars on trolley construction – plus tens of millions more annually in subsidies.
If we REALLY care about public transit, we should be pushing for shifting SANDAG policy (and funding) emphasis to lower cost, more efficient, far more flexible buses. Let’s end our trolley "edifice complex."
The article reveals that 90.9% drive to work. Only 3.5% use public transportation.
Of that 3.5%, only 9% of these public transit users ride the trolleys. That comes to 0.315% of all county commuters ride our multi-billion dollar trolley boondoggle. Almost 9 times as many commuters ride the buses as ride the trolleys.
It gets worse. SANDAG admits that about ¾ of the trolley riders used to take the bus. Hence only about 0.07875% of the trolley commuters are former car commuters. For you numerically impaired, that’s less than EIGHT ONE-HUNDREDTHS OF ONE PERCENT of former car commuters now do part or all of their work commute on a trolley.
For this minuscule usage, we have spent (as Carl Sagan used to so elegantly intone) “billions and billions” of dollars on trolley construction – plus tens of millions more annually in subsidies.
If we REALLY care about public transit, we should be pushing for shifting SANDAG policy (and funding) emphasis to lower cost, more efficient, far more flexible buses. Let’s end our trolley "edifice complex."
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