It is true that some people who could afford to pay more use mass transit -- I use the subway almost daily and doubling the price wouldn't change that.
But many of the people I see using the subway are not well to do. And moving people around the City quickly benefits no only transit riders but also businesses who get staff to work on time. More people on transit means less people in cars which helps traffic flow.
Perhaps more to the point, if we say mass transit should be self funding, doesn't that suggest roads too should be self funded? After all roads, like bus routes, are part of a transportation system.
Should we make Yonge Street in Toronto a toll road?
I don't think we should -- and I think mass transit should have proper government funding.
5 comments:
Speaking from a long-term perspective, it makes much more sense to charge tolls on private vehicles than it does to penalize mass transit.
The only problem I have with a disproportionate percentage of affluent using mass transit is that it suggests fares are unaffordable to the less affluent. Mass transit should be just that, transit for the masses, the entire population. London couldn't have evolved into the Brit capital if it didn't have a century of highly developed mass transit to overcome the ancient Roman road system.
Do we actually have empirical evidence that it is mostly the affluent who rely PRIMARILY on mass transit?
I say primarily because it is important to draw a distinction between someone who has no car and relies on mass transit to get around, and someone who has a car but chooses to take transit into town every day to go to work.
I do agree that it's a complete red herring: if poor people aren't using transit because it's too expensive, then making it more expensive through privatization does nothing for them.
3 comments on if the "rich" are using the subways in Toronnnna.
WTF?
You people in Toronto are in la-la land.
I mean, 99 percent of that city used to be white and now under 50 percent are white.
Where did the other 50 percent go and why?
Fill me in.
Anon, I hope JM scrubs your comment ASAP. You're a cheap bigot and a rotten son of a bitch. In case you haven't noticed, Toronto has grown enormously over the past half century and it might surprise you to learn that a great many of the affluent are people of colour. Now grab your racist anonymity and crawl back under your rock.
Post a Comment