THE LIE ABOUT MASS TRANSIT THAT THE MEDIA PERPETRATES DAILY
From the Anti-Planner
Nearly two years ago, the Federal Transit Administration released a report saying the transit industry has a $77 billion maintenance backlog. So why is the Associated Press making a big deal of this report now?
“Americans are turning to trains and buses to get around in greater numbers than ever before,” says the AP. “The aging trains and buses they’re riding, however, face an $80 billion maintenance backlog that jeopardizes service just when it’s most in demand.”
The article’s writer never critically examines the claim that Americans are riding transit “in greater numbers than ever before,” and it is flat-out wrong. The American Public Transportation Association’s latest ridership report says that Americans took 10.4 million transit trips in 2011.
That’s not even a record for the last five years, as 10.5 million trips were taken in 2008. And it’s a far cry from the 23 million trips per year taken in 1944, 1945, and 1946.
What’s going on is that transit interests, with the help of gullible news reporters, is keeping the political pressure on members of Congress who are debating the future of federal transportation funding.
“We’ve totally mismanaged the transit industry,” they are saying, “by neglecting our infrastructure and instead spending tax dollars on expensive new rail lines, transit centers, and other infrastructure that we won’t be able to maintain either. Now, we demand that you reward us for our incompetence by giving us $80 billion to fix the maintenance backlog. If you don’t, we just may have to shut down, stranding the many (though we really don’t want to say how many) commuters who depend on transit to get to work.”
Of course, they have every reason to believe this strategy will work. Only government rewards people for screwing up and punishes them for success.
“Americans are turning to trains and buses to get around in greater numbers than ever before,” says the AP. “The aging trains and buses they’re riding, however, face an $80 billion maintenance backlog that jeopardizes service just when it’s most in demand.”
The article’s writer never critically examines the claim that Americans are riding transit “in greater numbers than ever before,” and it is flat-out wrong. The American Public Transportation Association’s latest ridership report says that Americans took 10.4 million transit trips in 2011.
That’s not even a record for the last five years, as 10.5 million trips were taken in 2008. And it’s a far cry from the 23 million trips per year taken in 1944, 1945, and 1946.
What’s going on is that transit interests, with the help of gullible news reporters, is keeping the political pressure on members of Congress who are debating the future of federal transportation funding.
“We’ve totally mismanaged the transit industry,” they are saying, “by neglecting our infrastructure and instead spending tax dollars on expensive new rail lines, transit centers, and other infrastructure that we won’t be able to maintain either. Now, we demand that you reward us for our incompetence by giving us $80 billion to fix the maintenance backlog. If you don’t, we just may have to shut down, stranding the many (though we really don’t want to say how many) commuters who depend on transit to get to work.”
Of course, they have every reason to believe this strategy will work. Only government rewards people for screwing up and punishes them for success.