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I want to respond to Sunny Schubert in her August 21 column, concerning the Monona Express. For taxpayers who have no problem spending $75 every week to fill up their tanks, I am sure that transit is never worth the cost. Let the working class walk to work! Ms. Schubert and all who agree with her are free to drive all over the place, on roads paid for by the rest of us. But as long as the taxpayers are asked to build roads and bridges for the automobile masses, then I will fight for more equitable funding for mass transit. Ms Schubert’s numbers are actually more damning than mine, but she misquotes my statistics, and twists the facts. Since her Monona is much more expensive to live in, I wanted to explain why good mass transit is necessary if we want to maintain a reasonable cost of living in Monona for
families and working people.
Our automobile-dependent culture is not “evil;” it is dumb. We all waste thousands of dollars and thousands of hours behind the steering wheel. Many other nations have higher standards of living, in part, because they choose to invest in better transportation infrastructure. Our economy is less efficient, and more of our income gets wasted on cars. Trains and buses are more efficient when lots of people are going the same place, and rather than constantly building roads and bridges, our nation would be stronger and wealthier if we looked beyond our borders, rather than being stuck in the status quo.I understand that waste creates a lot of profit and industry. There are lots of jobs tied up in building roads and cars, and in maintaining and fueling them. If we refuse to fund alternatives, then we have no choice. The time has come to challenge this status quo. The paltry cost to the taxpayer of excellent transit pales in comparison to what we are forced to pay to get around when mass transit is lacking.
The conservative argument against transit is ideological, but not economically logical. Conservatives apparently do not care about the cost of living. Ms. Schubert wants to cut taxes on the average citizen by $4/year, and in return, 25 families can expect to add $7000/year to their family transportation costs. We the people should reject such arguments.
Only government, for the people and by the people, can enable transportation options that are more efficient and user-friendly. Average citizens profit from excellent transit; which is better than allowing oil companies and the auto industry to determine how we get around.
In my article, my estimated taxi fare to downtown is $10/ride, or $20/day. (Not $40/day, as Sunny asserts) According to Ms. Schubert, the cost averages $30 every day, roundtrip. OK, I’ll accept her numbers, which makes the “logic” of using the taxi even worse. At $30/day x 250 days, a commuter would pay $7500/year. (25 commuters x $7500 = $ 187,500.) The TOTAL transit cost of $80,000 / 25 riders = $ 3200/year/rider, which the local taxpayer pays a small portion of ($640/rider.)Yes, the state and federal money that subsidizes our roads also subsidizes our transit, as it should. Meanwhile, due to the paltry spending on transit, the average family in Monona pays over $10,000/year to own and operate multiple vehicles to be able to get anywhere.
Thus, it costs a lot more to live in Monona than in other communities with good transit. Madison spends $50/taxpayer on transit, whereas Monona spends just $4/taxpayer (if you include state and federal money, the numbers are $200 and $16/taxpayer, respectively.) Thus, Monona has much less transit, and many working people cannot afford to live here. Meanwhile, more affluent people have no choice but to spend thousands more each year to drive to work. These families cannot choose to ride the bus that never comes. The roads are more congested; and only the few families who are served by our system get to save thousands of dollars every year by taking the bus.
Instead, I would argue that we should demand much better transit, at a cost closer to what Madison spends. Then the people of Monona can pay $50/person/year for excellent transit that we can all utilize, allowing hundreds of families to save thousands of dollars each every year. Ms. Schubert and her allies will have more room to drive around on public-funded highways, and more citizens will have the money to vacation and enjoy life, rather than waste more time and money driving in traffic.
Respectfully submitted,
Chad Speight
Monona Alder
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Alder Speight Responds to Sunny on Mass Transit
Labels:
Dane County,
Monona,
Transportation
Alder Chad Speight sent along his own reply to Sunny Schubert's mass transit column (Monona Express not worth the costs) in the Herald Independent:
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Alder Speight -
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that you sign your post "respectfully submitted", for it was anything but.
One thing you might learn in your freshman year on the council is that sarcasm won't get you far. Now that you've been ELECTED (albeit barely), you've much to prove. A post like that, with clear disdain for another's opinion shows immaturity and an inability to appreciate anyone's opinion but your own.
Sunny's column is meant to entertain, and no one elected her. In the future, before you fire off retorts of this sort......perhaps you will think about the manner and spirit in which you do it.
Do you really want to accomplish change? Or just incite the masses?
I didn't vote for you, but I could certainly join your cause on this issue. But not if this is how you are going to fight the fight.
Let the working class walk to work!
ReplyDeleteNice page out of the right-wing playbook, Chad.
I understand that waste creates a lot of profit and industry.
Woah, you should have taken some of the harder sciences at that fancy Ivy League school you attended.
Here is Chad's response:
ReplyDeleteDear poster,
As you may know, I am passionate about the issue of transit, both because it is good for our economy, and because it is connected to so many vital
issues. As a citizen and elected representative, I do get frustrated by inaccuracies and distortions of fact that prevent common sense from prevailing in our public discourse. Due to a few huge, egregious errors, Sunny makes a point which, in truth, is completely false. Those who want to believe that transit is so expensive will read her article and think that their assumptions are correct. They are not. The Express costs less than $7/rider/trip, TOTAL cost, compared to the $15 taxi ride. For the record, I estimated a taxi ride to cost $10 in my original transit post, so I
underestimated that, to my own disadvantage.
I know Sunny, and I enjoy reading her articles. I certainly meant no disrespect. She is also entitled to her opinions, but not to her facts. The fact that we are automobile-dependent is not "evil", but it is wasteful and expensive. Our children and grandchildren will pay dearly for our ignorance and lack of vision as a society when it comes to transportation. But we also have the ability to change this. I ran for public office to make a difference, and I have an obligation to advocate for the things which I believe serve the people of Monona. I recognize that the people may send me packing; that is the risk of trying to lead. But Sunny also understands this. I welcome the debate.
Thank you for your comments.
Alder Chad Speight
I am out until Sunday.
ReplyDeleteTo the anonymous poster who thinks I need to study economics, I would like to point out that I did, in fact, minor in economics, with a major in US history. I also briefly fell under the spell of conservative ideology in my youth. I even studied in Budapest in 1986, so I saw the follies of Soviet-era communism first hand. I would welcome a full debate on economics and government policy. I have remained engaged in economic policy throughout my adult life, both as a citizen and as a business owner who employees 10 people.
ReplyDeleteThe liberal New Deal policies which delivered a thriving middle class have been undercut by 30 years of supply side anti-government orthodoxy. One of the great ironies of the success of the New Deal is that Americans became wealthy enough to own and operate multiple cars, which allowed support for mass transit to diminish. Transit was still more efficient, but we could afford this luxury, and built our economy around automobile transit.
Ironically, the stalwarts of the new Reagan-era economy seem to be more dependent on government than the old New Deal liberals. The same Walmart that smashes union organizing and intimidates workers who support Obama and Democrats, also depends on BadgerCare and public transit so that they can pay minimum wages to adult workers. And lest we forget, it was no accident that General Motors bought out street car companies so that people would have to buy cars to get around.
The proof that the conservative movement is intellectually bankrupt can be seen in both health care and transportation; the "free market" has not delivered greater efficiency, and Americans are paying a LOT more for these essential services than our First World competitors, with less to show for it. Americans pay twice as much for health care and transportation than our industrial competitors, yet we rank near the bottom in outcomes (we do not live as long, and we do not get around any faster)
The fact is that government plays a vital role in a healthy, prosperous economy, much as we need traffic signals and speed limits on the highway. Most things ARE done best by private industry, on a level playing field (with sensible regulation, neither absent nor excessive) Government does some things better than the marketplace, but in most cases, it just needs to enforce the rules and otherwise get out of the way.
Building roads AND providing good mass transit are vital services that government needs to provide. No economic theory or economic history suggest otherwise. I fear that we may be doomed, that the conservative anti-government agenda combined with crippling debt, may make it impossible to right the ship. But that will not stop me from trying.
Chad Speight
Doug and Chad, you're doing a great job! No members of my Monona circle of friends have columns, or even blogs, so you may not hear from us very often. We're here, though, and we thank you for asserting your uber-liberal, I mean progressive, thoughts and working for the good of us all. (Lookie me, I had time to read the paper and Doug's blog in the same week!)
ReplyDeleteI hear people complain about not getting enough families with young children to move to Monona, and we want to offer our senior citizens quality of life that they deserve. Providing an array of sensible transportation options is an important piece to the humanitarian puzzle for our community. I don't expect everyone to see it that way, but I sure expect some people to squeak when they think that their way of life is being impinged upon; thanks for squeaking back.