The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority(TARTA) is doing it again: cutting service at time when it should be encouraging ridership.
According to today's Toledo Blade the changes to occur are:
- Eliminating the ten cent transfer fee and making a one dollar no matter where one goes.
- Cutting out express service to Sylvania
- Cut the crosstown service during all times but rush hour
- Cutting service on River Road (34R)
- Change the fare on Call-A-Ride from sixty cents to one dollar (no automatic transfer to the second bus I assume)
There's some 'goodies' here too, but I am not going to go into those - they are piddley - merely a bone being thrown to those who ride the bus regularly. And why is this happening? Because head honchos are beefing about fuel costs. They're too high.
There's a way to solve this, but of course TARTA, dependent on voter levies, doesn't want to mull THIS: getting beyond encouraging ridership to supporting the one thing that will increase it: do whatever is necessary to get people to commute to work in anything else but the automobile.
The fuel TARTA needs is going mainly into Joe and Jane Middle Class's SUV's, minivans, and big ass trucks. I still see a whole lot of them coming in from the south Toledo and the 'Burbs Monday through Friday in their huge fuel hogs - often with only one person driving. Most of those folks work in offices in downtown Toledo and truly do not need to go anywhere else during the day. Lunch time out at places like Cafe Marie's or Barry's Bagels in Westgate when one works, for example, in One Government Center, is not only just a luxury, but a travesty that is unpatriotic to boot.
I am certain the same thing is happening all over Toledo too.
Yeah, oil is down to around $129.00 per barrel to today. The Joes and Janes out there are giving a huge collective sigh of relief as they believe they've gutted it out and gasoline at more reasonable price is on the way.
WRONG! It will go up again. It's time to change. Get out of the 'Mr. Nice Guy' mode and cease pleading with folks to try the bus. Using mass transit is in our national interest and we don't have the time any more to play nice.
So, TARTA honchos: when are you going to get the message and stop discouraging bus ridership and start pressing for the changes to get folks on 'em?
And while you are at it, when are you going to start working in earnest on losing your own fuel hogs too? GM, Ford and Chrysler got us into these petroleum based internal combustion engine driven monstrosities that barely pass for public mass transit way back in the 30's and 40's. It's quite past the time to rebuild the electrically driven streetcar system and get it back on the road again.
By cutting service or making service more expensive to use, all you guys are doing is helping to push this country closer the edge of the abyss.
So, how long are going to wait to do the courageous thing that needs doing? Until we're on the very brink and about to fall in?
If you aren't up to it or if you are can't or won't stop conspiring to preserve the car culture maybe it's time for changes in TARTA's leadership.
According to today's Toledo Blade the changes to occur are:
- Eliminating the ten cent transfer fee and making a one dollar no matter where one goes.
- Cutting out express service to Sylvania
- Cut the crosstown service during all times but rush hour
- Cutting service on River Road (34R)
- Change the fare on Call-A-Ride from sixty cents to one dollar (no automatic transfer to the second bus I assume)
There's some 'goodies' here too, but I am not going to go into those - they are piddley - merely a bone being thrown to those who ride the bus regularly. And why is this happening? Because head honchos are beefing about fuel costs. They're too high.
There's a way to solve this, but of course TARTA, dependent on voter levies, doesn't want to mull THIS: getting beyond encouraging ridership to supporting the one thing that will increase it: do whatever is necessary to get people to commute to work in anything else but the automobile.
The fuel TARTA needs is going mainly into Joe and Jane Middle Class's SUV's, minivans, and big ass trucks. I still see a whole lot of them coming in from the south Toledo and the 'Burbs Monday through Friday in their huge fuel hogs - often with only one person driving. Most of those folks work in offices in downtown Toledo and truly do not need to go anywhere else during the day. Lunch time out at places like Cafe Marie's or Barry's Bagels in Westgate when one works, for example, in One Government Center, is not only just a luxury, but a travesty that is unpatriotic to boot.
I am certain the same thing is happening all over Toledo too.
Yeah, oil is down to around $129.00 per barrel to today. The Joes and Janes out there are giving a huge collective sigh of relief as they believe they've gutted it out and gasoline at more reasonable price is on the way.
WRONG! It will go up again. It's time to change. Get out of the 'Mr. Nice Guy' mode and cease pleading with folks to try the bus. Using mass transit is in our national interest and we don't have the time any more to play nice.
So, TARTA honchos: when are you going to get the message and stop discouraging bus ridership and start pressing for the changes to get folks on 'em?
And while you are at it, when are you going to start working in earnest on losing your own fuel hogs too? GM, Ford and Chrysler got us into these petroleum based internal combustion engine driven monstrosities that barely pass for public mass transit way back in the 30's and 40's. It's quite past the time to rebuild the electrically driven streetcar system and get it back on the road again.
By cutting service or making service more expensive to use, all you guys are doing is helping to push this country closer the edge of the abyss.
So, how long are going to wait to do the courageous thing that needs doing? Until we're on the very brink and about to fall in?
If you aren't up to it or if you are can't or won't stop conspiring to preserve the car culture maybe it's time for changes in TARTA's leadership.
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