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Thursday, August 2, 2007
Why is funding of public transit seen differently?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Transit officials are rolling out the big buses on the Snellville-to-Atlanta express line.
Riders on Wednesday morning hopped aboard 57-passenger coaches provided through GRTA (Georgia Regional Transit Authority) rather than the 39-seat Gwinnett Transit vehicles they had been riding. The switch is hoped to eliminate overcrowding that has caused passengers on some trips to stand up during the ride downtown.
Not all of the express runs received the bigger buses Wednesday morning but were expecting them by today, said Phil Boyd, acting director for Gwinnett County Transit. The large coaches will not necessarily cost more to operate because the main expense is labor, he said. In fact, bigger buses can be more efficient because they can take in more fares per trip, he said.
An average of 206 daily boardings were recorded on the Snellville-to-Atlanta routes - and their return trips — in June, said William Mecke of GRTA. Since the route began in April, it has grown “as fast or faster than anything else we’ve had,” Mecke said.
The bigger buses were a welcome sight to commuters Faye Rosenbaum and Mary Crenshaw, both of Snellville, who separately boarded the 7:30 a.m. bus Wednesday at Snellville First Baptist Church. Each of the women had tried riding earlier routes but switched to avoid the crowds and lack of seats.
Rosenbaum, who attended a town hall meeting with Gwinnett County Commissioner Mike Beaudreau earlier this year, wondered aloud if the popularity of the express service had affected Beaudreau’s opposition to the routes. She recalled the commissioner telling her that he was against the service and that she should consider changing jobs or moving to Atlanta if she didn’t like the commute from Gwinnett to downtown.
“I remember thinking, ‘is he telling me to leave Gwinnett and take my tax dollars and disposable income somewhere else?‘” Rosenbaum said.
As ridership grew, however, Rosenbaum thought Beaudreau may have changed his mind.
Beaudreau said Tuesday he is still reviewing the numbers and costs of the service, Though he has come to no conclusions on the Snellville line in particular, in general the commissioner still opposes such types of public transit because they are heavily subsidized by taxpayers and used by a relatively small number of riders.
The growth in ridership is “no surprise because you are subsidizing people to go to work,” Beaudreau said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all that people would want to ride.”
Beaudreau said he favors keeping jobs in Gwinnett rather than spending tax money to carry residents to work outside the county. Public transit is not one of the “core competencies” of county governments, he said, and there are other, private options available for commuting. And, the bus service is sometimes used by people who don’t live in Gwinnett, he said.
The commissioner also said personal choice plays a part in long commutes and government should be careful of spending money on needs brought on by personal choice,
“I used to live in Cobb County and work in Gwinnett,” he said. “I did the commute for a while, but then decided to move closer to where I work.”
I’ve given Beaudreau’s reasons some thought. But, so far, I haven’t been able to follow the logic.
Why is public transit — which offers the added benefits of taking cars off congested roads — so different from other government services? The costs can be high, but the philosophy of funding public transit seems similar to the philosophy of building roads or parks.
Public projects rarely serve everyone. There are areas of Gwinnett I never visit, yet the county builds and maintains parks and roads for the people who do.
Non-residents use our roads and parks. And personal choices — such as where people live — spur development of roads, parks and other infrastructure.
Similar arguments can be made about schools.
Though I don’t use all public services, I don’t begrudge my tax dollars going toward them. I feel the same toward public transit.
What do you think? Is government funding of public transit philosophically different from funding other government projects?
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