We are so far behind

[Honda]

The rest of the world is leaving us behind while we fight with each other over BS.

https://www.facebook.com/10925927387...0060943128478/

[TriGuy]

The politicians are owned by oil and gas and the auto companies due to the masses of folks employed by the industries. They have no incentive to fund public transit. And with Covid even here in the bay with BART, Light rail and baby bullet trains easily accessible the trains are mostly empty out of fear of the virus. We have been trying to build a bullet train from SF to Los Angeles for years and a certain political party has fought funding at every turn on both the state and federal level

[Mike]

I don't think the feds should be in the business of funding state and local mass transit projects. The state should not be in the business of funding strictly local projects.

I have no problem with the feds funding interstate projects and the states funding intrastate projects as long as they farther city to city transportation.

[UTAH]

Yes, we're seeing politics rather than business interests ruling these transportation choices. I still think progress will be made in catching up with what's happening elsewhere. It'll simply be delayed.

Hunter

[Scooter]

In the Phoenix area, since the start of COVID-19 commuter bus ridership is down a lot. The Park And Rides are down nearly 90%. Because of COVID-19 fares were suspended. The way buses are done, the city pays all of the operating costs, plus some for a contractor to handle it. The fares are pure profit for the operator. So, it did not mean a ton to the Metro authority to cancel fares. What it did mean is that homeless activity has increased significantly, because now there is free transportation anywhere buses run. It is not uncommon to find 4 or 5 homeless people sleeping at a bus stop at 3 AM. When the buses are not running.
As for a bullet train, the US sure loves airplanes, and right now, planes are far cheaper and way quicker. If the model changes, then I could see it being viable, but that means those that are on the higher end of taxes will be paying the majority of something they will not use, again.

[Sandman]

My retirement job was working for county DOT.. I sat with all of the bus admin.

Scooter, same here.. the county run bus company is fully funded (we also have a regional transit authority, Metro rail and Metro bus) .. the county buss fare must be set by an act of the board of supervisors.. so another trick that the county bus does is raise fare by several dollars, by law, then discount the fare to a small increase, discount can be done without an act of supervisors.. (it was a sad day when the county $$$ people “discovered “ the “fare box”$$$.. no more jackets and rain gear and uniform shirts.. for 20 years the fare box was spent on snacks and clothing for staff..

Mike, I agree.. but funding is a political mess.. in a metro area the transit authority area is designated like an archery target.. the city is bulls eye and the suburban counties are in the first ring.. counts are made of how many riders get on and off at each stop.. the last stop on a rail line is a very busy station.. counties pay into the fund per their ridership.. now the sticky wicket.. what happens when a rural county in the second or third ring out runs a commuter bus into the end of the line station, who pays for those riders?

[Scooter]

It is typically the point of origination for direct, or commuter lines. That being said, a destination city might participate, or may pay the whole thing, if it is to their advantage. It usually is because of traffic, parking or pollution concerns. Bus stops, my specialty, are typically paid by local governments, and not the metro authority.

[Sandman]

Small world.. in retirement, I managed a signage contract for county DOT.. 50% was for county run bus company.. first, I had to learn about bus stops.. the bus is 40 feet long and can’t make a left turn from the right lane.. near side, far side.. flag in, flag out..

We had overlapping routs with the Metropolitan Authority (read as “don’t play well with others”) and I have some great stories of working with them….

Capitol improvement, pads, benches shelters were a whole nuther beauracratic gaggle..

[Scooter]

Our metro authority has representatives from every city, and they all have equal votes. Phoenix is the big city, with ~1.6 million, which i think is very low. Mesa is a suburb with ~500,000 and the other cities are also larger. Phoenix keeps trying to roll over and enforce their will on the smaller cities, and they have none of it. As an interested observer, it is quite the show.

[Sandman]

Small town with a two route feeder to subway did a beautiful relandscape along Main Street.. new shelters, brick landing zones and nice sign posts.. the contractors committed the cardinal sin of moving the flags and flagging the local feeder over the regional authority.. the room falls silent, no one had ever flagged over Metro.. well it took less than a month and Metro had pounded new sticks, their sticks, into flowerbeds and removed & replaced their signage.. but they had to break the old signs, they didn’t know how to remove rivets….