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RBA and the guilting of NWIndiana
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Author:  Neometric [ Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:08 am ]
Post subject:  RBA and the guilting of NWIndiana

Today's Times notifies us that, "With the clock ticking down to closure for the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority, its biggest backer has stepped up with an offer to again provide "gap" funding for the agency.

"The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority late Tuesday afternoon issued a statement it will provide funding to head off the RBA's June 30 closure 'if local officials can identify and implement a permanent funding source before that occurs.'"

That is a very very, very big IF.

Go figure. The RDA and the RBA people just don't get it. Viewed against the total population of the NWInd Region the need for bus service is radically marginal. And when viewed against the price of funding any regional bus system, because such a service will never become fashionable or ever realize efficient travel times, it is so poor an investment as to be a waste of citizens' sacrifice let, alone government or government sponsored money or direct tax dollars.

I'm sick and tired of being propagandized by RBA attempts at guilting us wherein we stand and how we decide this so-called social issue, an issue increasingly exploited to subliminally redefine any stand or resistance in moral terms. This borders on the egregious when considered in the context of an already artificially prolonged public discussion supplemented by a government funded campaign.

There can be no psychological or rationalized moral commitment to an antiquated system of transportation, let alone a proposal seeking the addition of LOCAL public funding for a statistically nominal amount of users.

Buses are simply inefficient. Indeed, at the functional, regional-user level, bus service is a literal waste of finite time.

Likewise, the figures supplied by the RBA cannot be reasonably relied on in providing a true picture. For the term "Ridership" is deliberately ambiguous. During a recent RBA presentation to the Lake County Council, Ridership was described by the average length of a bus ride which was three miles.

In addition, the term ridership necessarily represents the number of rides, something transactional, and not the number of people regularly relying on buses so as to reliably baseline a prospective market. Otherwise it might be argued or projected as able to pay for itself. As Spiro B. once pointed out, a figure like that here of 30,884 per month, could represent one rider taking 30,884 rides or 30,884 people taking one ride a month - or any mixture of the two parameters in between.

Either way it is transactional and certainly not representative of any potential for an emerging, self-supporting market/service.

If we are gonna be taxed, we simply have bigger fish to fry.

Author:  karent [ Wed Apr 18, 2012 7:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: RBA and the guilting of NWIndiana

Most public transportation isn't even environmentally responsible. Hubby had an article showing that very few beat cars on the environment scorecard.

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