cynthialstern
08-01-2006, 05:04 PM
The Bay Area has always made what seems to me to be a valiant effort to get people out of their cars and into public transportation. But people are just too-enamored of the convenience that having an automobile 24/7 entails, and it's difficult to get them to invest the additional time and planning that commuting on public transportation can entail--even with the potential gains in terms of dollars freed up and the relaxing pleasure of letting someone else concentrate on the driving factored in.
Despite the continual incentive programs that have been offered over the years, nothing seems to have gotten people to change their minds like $3+ per gallon prices at the pump. One fairly-effective incentive program has been granting tax benefits to employers who buy monthly commuter passes for their employees. I also think that it's a good idea to offer free rides on those occasions when people are far-more-likely to drink and drive, such as on New Year's Eve.
But the recent six "Free Rides For Spare The Air" days were pretty-much a complete waste of money--at least according to some of the news articles that I've read.
The idea behind this program is twofold: 1-Take pressure off of the air quality by giving people additional incentives to get out of their cars on THAT DAY. 2-Show people who are not in the habit of taking public transportation just how great it can be by giving them a free ride, and hoping that they'll reconsider their long-held habit of taking their cars to work and to school.
Well, maybe #1 worked to some extent, but, considering that it cost literally millions of dollars to fund six days of free transportation, I think that the expenditure-per-potential-"convert" must have been exorbitant.
But the real deal-breaker, for me, was the news reports that many (most?) of the people who took advantage of the free rides were NOT commuters. No, they were homeless people, looking to get out of the heat. They were school kids who decided that having a rowdy party on BART would be a way-kewl idea. And they were gangstahs and thugs who decided to commute out to the 'burbs to mug people in new neighborhoods. (Well, I guess that, in a SENSE, the thieves could have been said to have used the public transportation system to "commute to their jobs," but I don't think that's the sort of thing that we should be encouraging--nevermind funding!)
I've been taking public transportation for the better part of two decades. For the most part, I love it. And it's a terrific deal, in monetary terms. But, despite my being a big fan of the system, I feel that money is much-better-spent on incentive programs other than giving no-strings, all-day-long free rides on "Spare The Air" days.
Despite the continual incentive programs that have been offered over the years, nothing seems to have gotten people to change their minds like $3+ per gallon prices at the pump. One fairly-effective incentive program has been granting tax benefits to employers who buy monthly commuter passes for their employees. I also think that it's a good idea to offer free rides on those occasions when people are far-more-likely to drink and drive, such as on New Year's Eve.
But the recent six "Free Rides For Spare The Air" days were pretty-much a complete waste of money--at least according to some of the news articles that I've read.
The idea behind this program is twofold: 1-Take pressure off of the air quality by giving people additional incentives to get out of their cars on THAT DAY. 2-Show people who are not in the habit of taking public transportation just how great it can be by giving them a free ride, and hoping that they'll reconsider their long-held habit of taking their cars to work and to school.
Well, maybe #1 worked to some extent, but, considering that it cost literally millions of dollars to fund six days of free transportation, I think that the expenditure-per-potential-"convert" must have been exorbitant.
But the real deal-breaker, for me, was the news reports that many (most?) of the people who took advantage of the free rides were NOT commuters. No, they were homeless people, looking to get out of the heat. They were school kids who decided that having a rowdy party on BART would be a way-kewl idea. And they were gangstahs and thugs who decided to commute out to the 'burbs to mug people in new neighborhoods. (Well, I guess that, in a SENSE, the thieves could have been said to have used the public transportation system to "commute to their jobs," but I don't think that's the sort of thing that we should be encouraging--nevermind funding!)
I've been taking public transportation for the better part of two decades. For the most part, I love it. And it's a terrific deal, in monetary terms. But, despite my being a big fan of the system, I feel that money is much-better-spent on incentive programs other than giving no-strings, all-day-long free rides on "Spare The Air" days.