[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: This is the Voice of Transit Control

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
This is the Voice of Transit Control
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1214863827.shtml


   [colossus01.jpg] It was a race of sorts, between raising taxes and
   raising a new Interstate 35W bridge. Amazingly, the bridge won,
   reopening in September ahead of schedule, barely over a year since the
   old bridge collapsed.
   But it is now October, and the final 3 cents a gallon tax goes into
   effect. Allegedly, this will pay for roads and bridges, but that's not
   really true. This money and the 25 cent Metro Transit fare increase
   that also begins October 1st is really just going for Light Rail. So
   will the 50 cent fare increase all but certain for next year.
   We're far from done, I'm afraid. Plans are already on the table for
   several more lines that will connect with the Hiawatha and Central
   Corridor lines. We can expect to spend several more billions of
   dollars to build them, then at least 100 million more dollars a year
   in subsidies, much more if you factor in opportunity costs. And they
   go where buses go now, sometimes faster, so there is no real
   improvement in publicly conveying passengers. As if that was the goal.
   This nonsense expands because there is no feedback, i.e. elections
   held to turn out these dreamers on the unelected, unaccountable
   Metropolitan Council. You won't find any of them listed on the ballot
   in November. And yet they have the power to lighten your wallet and
   disrupt your commute with an obsolete idea so rightly abandoned in the
   1950's. You won't get them to discuss the inevitable fatalities,
   either.
   The Governor appoints the Metropolitan Council. Something to think
   about in 2010.