Quote:
Originally Posted by voice of reason
You are mixing and missusing terminology. Subsidy is not the same as user taxes. Highways are paid for primarily by users paying fees and taxes based on their quantity of useage. Light rail and bus systems are SUBSIDIZED, that means that funds, not from system users, are what pays for them. Anyone in the industry knows the difference. Actually gas taxes, car taxes etc, produce surpluses that governments raid for other uses.
All recent studies show that the San Diego trolley is used daily by about 2% of the workforce for commuting. The studies also show that the trolley only eases traffic by 1.3%. The difference is accounted for by the fact that a vast number of users of the trolley come from the bus system, which means that those people werent commuting with cars anyway.
The San Diego trolley has a budget of around $45 million and ticket revenues are around $24 million. This does not take into account the capital costs that were incurred at the point of construction. So there is a shortfall of $20+million per year that must be subsidized by non-users.
The only real test of a rail system is 'do people ride it in numbers sufficient to justify the cost'. The data speaks for itself.
I love the Tube in London, the Metro in Paris and have used them often. Millions of people ride them each day, thats more than ride San Diegos in a whole year. If people rode ours, I would support it, people chose not to. The government shouldnt build expensive things that the citizens dont want to use, for whatever reason.
The bus system, even though it too is not self-sufficient is a better use of public transportation funds than a rail system and the numbers bear this out.
As to the question of walking or riding to downtown. The trolley doesnt run every 3 minutes, I believe in the evening it is every 20-30 minutes. So lets say you hit the pickup time in the middle and you wait 13 minutes to get on, you then have to transfer trolleys lines down at the main station, this is usually about 4 minutes and then add in the travel time of 18 minutes. That comes to 35 minutes. I can easily walk to Gas Lamp or even Petco in 29 minutes without pushing it. The pedicab is 13 minutes flat. Try it yourself if arent too lazy.
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The reason trolley ridership is low is not because people here will not use mass transit, it's because the light rail system we have hasn't enough lines.
I don't go to SDSU or to the border. I do go from downtown to Hillcrest, North Park, Sorrento Valley and La Jolla.
So do alot of other people who work in the La Jolla/Sorrento Valley area, or who want to go dining/shopping in Hillcrest.
No, you can't "force" people to ride mass transit, but if you actually build the lines in logical places people will ride, yes even in San Diego
if a line was put to Balboa Park - Zoo, I guarantee tourists staying in downtown hotels would use it frequently
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(hoping and dreaming, I guess)
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