American Thinker: Like public transit? Want more public transit, as the lefties prescribe? Well, here’s your public transit: the New York subway system is out of money and now in a “death spiral,” according to a report in the Guardian:
Officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) warned last week that without a major infusion of cash, they will have to drastically cut service or increase fares on the system that carries millions of New Yorkers around the city.
Here are the ugly details:
The system’s financial straits have gotten worse in part because it has fewer riders, and is collecting less money in fares. Expected passenger revenue over a five-year period has dropped by $485m since July.
“They’ve entered this death spiral,” said Benjamin Kabak, who runs the transit website Second Avenue Sagas. “The subway service and the bus service has [sic] become unreliable enough for people to stop using it. If people aren’t using it, there’s less money, and they have to keep raising fares without delivering better service.”
Turns out nobody wants to ride it. It’s not hard to understand why. When subways are overcrowded as well as loaded with bums, pickpockets, fare-jumpers, manspreaders, people eating smelly food, and perverts, and the system does nothing to stop them, well, commuters start looking for other means of transport – especially if they are constantly late or erratic about coming. Quality of life matters, and women, for starters, don’t want to get groped, let alone stand for an hour in high heels or carrying groceries.
It’s called Going Galt.
That’s the least of it. Here are some recent news headlines from just this year alone.
…we have a streetcar in Cincinnati that NEVER supported itself, was redundant to existing bus routes, and didn’t go anywhere anyone wanted to be. Democrats took the city long ago, though, and since socialist both profit from the corruption of fat no-bid contracts and use public transportation as a means to limit where the peasants can go, they keep pouring more and more taxes down that bottomless pit since NO ONE will actually RIDE it…
…also, it doesn’t work in the winter. IN CINCINNATI. There’s some good Central Planning THERE…
No, it’s not called Going Galt, at least not by those who are literate. Going Galt means to withhold your talents and assets from society in general. An example would be a brilliant financier working as a short order cook in a diner.
For those unfamiliar, the term comes from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
That “death spiral” always seems to be the final phase of govt-run enterprises.
When subways are overcrowded as well as loaded with bums, pickpockets, fare-jumpers, manspreaders, people eating smelly food, and perverts, you know……New Yorker’s!
“Going Galt means to withhold your talents and assets from society in general. An example would be a brilliant financier working as a short order cook in a diner.”
…this is pretty common in “worker’s paradises” @Uncle Al, like in Cuba where doctors actually do better for themselves if they paint houses on the side…
I turned 50 this year, I haven’t worked since 2007, that’s when I went Galt.
The transit systems were built on pre-internet traffic studies. Nowadays people don’t necessarily have to commute to work. However transit systems in their effort to secure public funds, have ignored this trend.
“… nobody wants to ride it. It’s not hard to understand why. When subways are overcrowded …”
Huh?
Sorta like: “Nobody goes there any more … it’s too crowded.”
izlamo delenda est …
A shit public transportation system, taking shitheads to various locations in a shithole of a city.
Welcome to NYC.
Yeah, raise fees and taxes, that’ll fix it.
We were there in June 2016 and some of the trains were down, the ones that were working were severely overcrowded and nasty. Ended up spending over $100 on Uber rides back and forth from Manhattan/JFK area hotel.
NYC has a great mask that hides most of its giant uck.
The good news is they have the 64 oz Big Gulp problem under complete control
And during that minor snowfall that totally paralyzed the city last week, verbal microaggressions against transsexual meter violation monitors* were down 30%
*(musn’t call them maids, people)
Public Transit is = to Public Toilet.
Public Transit = Public Toilet.
Subway gets crappy and people take Uber and Lyft……..subway and revenues drop. So the city wants to impose an “Uber Tax” to help pay for the subway system……..do they teach economics anymore?
I got it!!! Just ban personal vehicles. You now have to park outside the city and either walk or take public transportation, nothing will go wrong there.