Are Self Driving Cars Just Us Ignoring the Real Issues? [View all]

from the Overhead Wire:


Most Read: Are Self Driving Cars Just Us Ignoring the Real Issues?


I'm going to start a new series on the blog called "Most Read". It will feature the most read article from the day before on The Direct Transfer Daily as well as some thoughts I have on it. It's been hard to blog lately but I need to get into it again to put some half baked thoughts to screen.

Today's most read piece was one by Jim Bacon entitled "The Slow, Inevitable Demise of Traditional Mass Transit" In it he talks about WMATA's declining transit patronage in the region and that part of the blame goes to the union while local government support will not be able to keep up with demands.

He then mentions the blue state transit model failure which just seems like tossing red meat to me.

By “blue state,” I refer to a set of attitudes that are most prevalent in blue states: a sympathy for transit unions, which means high compensation costs and low productivity; a reluctance to charge riders the full costs of providing their service, which depresses revenues; and a proclivity to seek federal aid, which comes with expensive regulatory strings attached.

I don't have sympathy for bad work rules but I do think people should be paid fair wages. I'm not necessarily pro union when these things are blatantly wrong but since when did anyone pay the full cost of the transportation service they use? Well, everyone pays full cost but it's just snuck out of your pocket instead of a direct charge. As many have said before and many will say again, why do we always have to pull out the "pay for itself" trope. We know that nothing does! If we did our cities would look a LOT different as there's a lot of subsidies flying every which way. ...................(more)

http://theoverheadwire.blogspot.com/2015/09/most-read-are-self-driving-cars-just-us.html