Next year's Metro budget is still projected to fall $29 million short of balance. Of course that includes significant contributions by local jurisdictions, cuts in staffing and other elements that riders may or may not see or feel. I read recently that there was actually some discussion about raising the fares by ten cents and that that would generate something like $35 million a year. Of course the board had made a promise not to raise fares for a couple years.
In the current economic environment where dollar signs are followed by mind-boggling quantities of zeros, 29-million dollars sure doesn't sound like much. Of course, when you are talking about rail and bus fares that come in a dollar or so at a time then it is a large nut to meet.
Transit First! is a coalition of riders, environmentalists and union members and has been weighing in on many recent activities at Metro. Their key issue is opposition to "the severe service reductions proposed to close the [funding gap]." The current push by the group is to convince local governments to increase their financial contributions. It states: "Transit First! urged local officials to be forthcoming with funding. Otherwise, there is a danger that the locally driven budgeting process will undo Metro's
hard-won creation of a regional bus network in 1997. Before then, buses were budgeted separately by jurisdiction. The result was distorted financial incentives and a lack of bus routes to serve trips between jurisdictions."
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Notice a lot of green around you today? It could be because today is St. Patrick's Day. This is a day that has evolved into a national drinking day; a day when people drink more than they should. Many of them get behind the wheel of a vehicle when they've had too much and that leads to crashes that can kill or injure. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that nearly 40-percent of all traffic deaths on St. Patrick's Day are alcohol related.
The Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), is offering its SoberRIde program today (St. Patrick's Day) beginning at 4:00 pm and continuing until 4:00 am tomorrow as a way to keep local roads safe from impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk holiday.
During this 12-hour period, area residents celebrating with alcohol may call the toll-free SoberRide phone number 1-800-200-TAXI and be afforded a no-cost (up to a $50 fare), ride home. The service is limited to local (District of Columbia; throughout the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George's; and throughout the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, eastern Loudoun and Prince William) residents age 21 and older. Last St. Patrick's Day (2008), 218 persons used WRAP's SoberRide service rather than possibly driving home impaired.
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I'm sure many of you have already seen this but for those that haven't; the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) recently released a report that shows that there were 10.7 billion trips taken on public transportation in the U.S. in 2008. The organization notes that this is the highest level of ridership in 52 years. This represents a 4% increase in the number of trips taken in 2007. It also cites U.S. Department of Transportation numbers that show that the number of vehicle miles traveled on the nation's roads declined by 3.6%.
A release from APTA states "This ridership record continues a long term trend of ridership growth. Public transportation use is up 38% percent since 1995, a figure that is almost triple the growth rate of the population (14 percent) and up substantially over the growth rate for the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on our nation's highways (21%) for that same period."
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
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