Where do Political Movers-and-Shakers get their Attirudes Toward Public Transit ?

Do we remember how powerful and effective were the campaigns by the Bus Lobby in the 1930's and 1940's against other forms of urban transit like trams and trolleys ?

The transit planners of those years are now safely out of reach of angry mobs carrying pitchforks and flaming torches . Encouraged by the bus lobby, they wiped out most of the effective, inexpensive, comfortable, passenger-oriented, city-wide rail-based transit systems (trolleys, streetcars, trams, light rail) then in existence and --- cheerfully supported by the asphalt lobby --- ripped up the rails, repaved the roads, added treacherously dangerous bicycle lanes that force cyclists to travel alongside speeding autommobile, bus, and truck traffic --- to whom they are essentially invisible --- and then proudly presented this system to populations that included :

1.  aging people forced to give up driving because of encroaching physical impairments . Think it will never happen to you ? Wait until you encounter the need for your first pair of bifocals at about the age of 40 , or the first time you hear the dreaded word "cataracts" --- and those are the inevitable, predictable hazards !

2. those who have been visually-challenged and handicapped for some time ;

3. children too young to drive ; remember, that's sixteen years of guaranteed dependence on others ... each ;             

4. users of golf carts, especially in warmer climates like Florida, Arizona, and California . Golf carts are often the vehicle of last resort of people with an urgent need to get to the local super market or pharmacy ; our wise politicians (!!!) have therefore carefully banned them from using the public roads --- for safety sake .

5. bar-hoppers who consider it a regular part of their lives to "stop off for a  drink", which almost always escalates to 4 or 5 or 12 drinks, and who then drive home dangerously impaired ;

6. their cousins, the beer drinkers, who (literally) do not consider beer an alcoholic beverage;

7. life-long urban dwellers who have never learned to drive ("Back home I can just hop on the subway" OR " a taxi ... the EL" ... OR, increasingly, light rail ) ;

8. people who just flat out can't afford an automobile, with the accompanying down payments, the monthly payments, the cost of parking , the liability insurance required by law, or the gasoline at over $3.00 per gallon to run it ;

9. most important for the economic health and growth of a region, the developers, relocation specialists, and potential property owners , who often as their first question to Economic Development Authorities trying to persuade a new industry to relocate into their town and to realtors talking to out-of-town residents inquiring about buying local residential property, raise the question :

"Is public transit available?" AND "How far is the nearest transit station?" .

They're not talking about a bus route that exists primarily on paper and that might be redrawn or eliminated at the whim of the next politician two years down the road . They want something dependable and permanent, like steel wheels on steel rail .

How do we know all this ? Personal experience, because recently we became a member of one of those groups listed above . We quickly realized that members of our family had appointments with several doctors and almost no civilized or comfortable way to get there... in a word, our independence was gone, snatched away by inexorable, relentless, pitiless Father Time .

Days of empire-building may be long gone, but requirements and needs still exist ... with almost no way to get where we need to go, certainly NOT by frequent, convenient, safe public transit . Our only course is to beg our friends for a ride, often to discover that they are in the same situation as we are.

Maybe the real problem is basically threefold in nature :

1. A complete lack of imagination on the part of planners, pundits in think tanks, and city fathers. AND

2. Complete reliance on academic authority falsely assumed to be bright, impartial, and accurate by the City-Father-of-the-Month Club, a poitical leader who is liable to be unseated in the next election, apparently with little real-life experience aside from politics and golf courses, AND

3. Have you ever noticed that professional Planners insist that public transit must break even or DISPLAY A PROFIT --- but nobody ever demands that, say, the army or the navy be similarly required to break even or show a profit.

We're all human and can make mistakes ; no one is asking that transit planners be perfect; just that they be rational, well informed, and --- almost above all ---- impartial .

Respectfully submitted !