Walk softly....
Thank you to Tommy at Sticks of Fire for the mention. It was nice to see some referrals other than the ones about which I was complaining. They say that misery loves company and while grumpiness isn't misery, it's nice to know I'm not alone, my regular readers make this all worth while. Thank you to all the folks that put a little Grumpy into their day.
Now on to my latest gripe. I was chewing the fat the other day with someone about traffic, and rail, and buses. One of their first points was a knock on the trolley for not making money. Now I've worked around engineers long enough that you can put a value on pretty near everything. So it got me to thinking. I'm sure it's out there, but when you add up all the costs of building roads, maintaining them, enforcing traffic, how does that compare per person per mile to buses or rail? Now I know buses use roads so there's got to be some crossover cost. I mean if you're job as the government is to move people, wherein is the expectation of profit from something like the trolley, will a light rail face the same expectation of profit? Then I wonder too, having also spent my fair share working around government folks, that isn't improving the efficiency of transportation self-defeating when you look at the bottom line? I mean a huge portion of the transportation coffers are filled by gas tax dollars which would decrease if more people were moved on mass transit. Less funds would be received by law enforcement if fewer people were driving and receiving moving violations. I figure that less coffee would be bought at Starbucks, or Dunkin Donuts. Less fast food would be consumed. So maybe the whole Tampa economy is dependent on the automobile. I think the only way to change that is when population density reaches a critical mass.
Quandary number two. Government often works under the principle of spend what they give you so they give you at least that much next year and hope for more. If you cut spending or make it cheaper they will make you do even more with even less next year. So if any transit system made money or even saved tax money it would just mean that you'd be asked to make it better next year.
Making biking and walking would be even worse, as people get healthier, then the whole medical economy would collapse. Those folks wouldn't spend any money on gas tax or fares. Maybe pay toilets and increased shoe sales would recover some of that revenue. That and charging for increased water use for the requisite showers.
It's all a conspiracy I tell you. It's not the military industrial complex we should worry about it's the coffee-fast food-DOT triad that's scaring me.
Now on to my latest gripe. I was chewing the fat the other day with someone about traffic, and rail, and buses. One of their first points was a knock on the trolley for not making money. Now I've worked around engineers long enough that you can put a value on pretty near everything. So it got me to thinking. I'm sure it's out there, but when you add up all the costs of building roads, maintaining them, enforcing traffic, how does that compare per person per mile to buses or rail? Now I know buses use roads so there's got to be some crossover cost. I mean if you're job as the government is to move people, wherein is the expectation of profit from something like the trolley, will a light rail face the same expectation of profit? Then I wonder too, having also spent my fair share working around government folks, that isn't improving the efficiency of transportation self-defeating when you look at the bottom line? I mean a huge portion of the transportation coffers are filled by gas tax dollars which would decrease if more people were moved on mass transit. Less funds would be received by law enforcement if fewer people were driving and receiving moving violations. I figure that less coffee would be bought at Starbucks, or Dunkin Donuts. Less fast food would be consumed. So maybe the whole Tampa economy is dependent on the automobile. I think the only way to change that is when population density reaches a critical mass.
Quandary number two. Government often works under the principle of spend what they give you so they give you at least that much next year and hope for more. If you cut spending or make it cheaper they will make you do even more with even less next year. So if any transit system made money or even saved tax money it would just mean that you'd be asked to make it better next year.
Making biking and walking would be even worse, as people get healthier, then the whole medical economy would collapse. Those folks wouldn't spend any money on gas tax or fares. Maybe pay toilets and increased shoe sales would recover some of that revenue. That and charging for increased water use for the requisite showers.
It's all a conspiracy I tell you. It's not the military industrial complex we should worry about it's the coffee-fast food-DOT triad that's scaring me.
posted by Grumpy at 3/15/2007 07:44:00 AM
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