Transit Politics
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
It must be nearing election season. Growing up in the Midwest, I figured election season was kind of like construction season, there was no real way to avoid it, you just had to suffer through it. Next year being a presidential election year, the election season gets heated up more than usual. Interestingly enough, next year’s election season coincides with APTA Expo … I wonder how many candidates will show up to try to win a little transit support.
Being election season, the media is out in force as well. A couple of stories I read this week are hammering home the point of elected officials not riding transit they are trying to drum up support for. This is nothing new, but with the looming “doomsday†cuts in Illinois, the reassignment of transit dollars in California, the congestion pricing debate in New York and the recent battle for funding in Pennsylvania, this story seems to have blossomed into a trend.
Now, we’ve all heard this story before. Why aren’t elected officials riding the very transit systems they are trying to get funds for? You know, the ones they profess to care so much about. First off, there are a lot of mitigating factors here. Take a look at the average large city mayor (New York, L.A.) or governor’s schedule and see if they get up, go to the office, and come home at the end of the day like the majority of us. They don’t. There are meetings in several different locations with a variety of individuals, not to mention press functions, staff meetings and I am sure a host of other things. And then there is the safety issue. No matter how many bodyguards an official has, being out in public makes them a potential target for anyone who is deranged enough to make an attempt on their life. So for them to be riding public transit on an everyday basis like the rest of the working world just doesn’t work.
But, that doesn’t give them an excuse to ignore it.
Elected officials are the representatives of the people. They are there to provide a spokesperson for the collective voice of the masses. For them to not ride public transit is a slap in the face to each and every person who has anything to do with it from the person who hops on it to go to work to the guy who fills the tires up at the maintenance facility.
Sure they have a busy schedule. Most of us do. And yes, with multiple meetings scattered in various locations throughout the day, I can see why you would want to be able to get in a car and go, but no matter what, there is always that Point A to Point B first trip in the morning. What better place to hop on a bus or train to see what your system is like. Get out there and see what the complaints are about. Find out why transfers are so important to some people or why others are skeptical of expanding your rail lines. That firsthand knowledge is essential for the job.
As for safety? Well, that will always be an issue and no matter what, if the elected officials are scared to ride transit, then what does that say to their constituents?
New York’s Mayor Bloomberg has been called on the carpet for only taking transit a couple times a week and even then, taking a car for more than 20 blocks to the nearest express rail station. But you know what, he’s trying. He’s out there. He may only be on a train twice a week, but it’s more than many elected officials, and much more than the ones who are arguing over transit’s funding future, yet without even letting the idea of riding transit cross their minds.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Friday.
September 7th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Elected officials aren’t the only government employees that are urging people to use transit, yet they themselves don’t use it much –if at all.
I also know of many rank and file transit workers who also drive to work instead of taking the bus or train. When asked why they don’t use the same transit that they actually work to provide, their response is something to the effect “it’s too slow, too crowded, and inconvenientâ€.
What does this say about the transit industry when the people who work in it “Don’t want to eat their own cooking�
Galen L. Dutch
September 7th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
RAPID TRANSIT explained for government officials-
Word is trickling out on the rapid depletion of premiere oilfields, like the North Sea, and Mexico’s Cantarell. Meanwhile, the dull ones in government still think votes are more important than treating the electorate with respect with regards to showing courageous leadership on transport policy imperatives and explaining why!
RAPID TRANSIT is the title of a now rare book printed in the first few years of the 20th century. Over 100 years ago, the theme of the book was time. Get that? Connected with that thought was the observation that the people who worked the hardest and longest hours in the fabric of society were the ones to whom time was the dearest, contrary to the view of economists then, and now.
Another way to say that thing about time is to think about “jobs US Citizens won’t do” and think: would we need illegal workers if the citizens already here had better public transport? Analyze that one, presidential wannabes… Yes, economists, you can help them… Hint: not needing a car… -follow that thread.
Fred Jandt and ALL TRANSIT MANAGERS need to scour the libraries and the web and turn up this old transit primer, it is like a building block for the edifice of transit as we used the word thru the 20th century, and are trying to revive in this century. Newfangled Streetcars were highlighted, easy enough to add renewable propulsion to update that breed, bicycles and omnibuses too. Walking -with a departure and arrival point in mind- was included in the book as a form of “Rapid Transit”! RAPID TRANSIT should be reprinted and available at the APTA Meetings. ‘Nuff sed…
Gunnar Henrioulle, Tahoevalleylines.com (peakoil.net) article 374
September 7th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Correction on Book Title:
THE STORY OF RAPID TRANSIT by Beckles Willson
“with thirty-seven illustrations”
D. Appleton And Company, New York, 1904
Hot off the musty titlepage -and with best wishes to APTA to get cracking on reprinting this seminal work…
September 9th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
MY Mayor Bloomberg parks a fancy personal vehicle nearby my residence (with OFFICIAL STATUS) but often uses city limosine. Yes he does take the subways OCCASIONALLY travelling from the Upper East Side to City Hall on the IRT LINEs. One day he stepped into a HOT R62 car (no HVAC) and NYCTA had to gear up repairing ALL cars with repairable HVAC units…..including my beloved REDBIRDS which were then in service. Anyone qualified for training/cert was sent out to ‘sub school’ with one out of ten or so passing. I passed.
Mayor Bloomberg has never taken a ‘rush hour shift run’ outside of Manhattan……#7 is a shuttle and does not qualify……so he has never really experienced what a long ride from the bottom of Brooklyn or top of the Bronx is all about.
There is on the internet the complete book printed in 1904 about the Interborogh Rapid Transit System with detailed info……start with a search for ‘NYC Subways.’ BTW: The Centennial Subway train consist was refurbished/rebuilt for the benifit of POLITICOS like GUV and MAYOR….to my knowledge only one or two ‘historic excursions’ available to public. IT and a wooden subway consist (early subways were made of wood….do a search for Malborne Accident) are probably stored inside of Coney Island Shops out of the weather. CI yard preserves a few trainsets awaiting restoration….Mayor LaGuardia initiated the ‘Transportation Holocost’ ridding us of streetcars.