When you think about building a new mass transit system, or funding (and cuts) top operate bus and rail lines you tend to think about the construction, manufacturing, operating and maintenance jobs created (or cut). That’s a lot of jobs, but those jobs are almost beside the point. Transit is part of the infrastructure that enables our economy, and that means things like enabling people to get to work.
Imagine New York without its infrastructure of subways, buses and rail. You have to imagine, at best, the city as it existed long ago. There might even still be a few farms! Cars would only be able to move a limited number of people along hyper-crowded roads…
So New York’s entire economy rests on that transportation infrastructure. Millions of people every single day coming into the central city…
Does your ability to get to your job depend on America’s transit infrastructure? (My job is from home so I depend on other parts of America’s infrastructure.) If it does then you should take a look at the Keep America Moving coalition:
Mass transit needs your help
A national funding crisis is bearing down on transit riders and the men and women who operate and maintain transportation systems. As the featured report from NBC News makes clear, the economic recession is devastating mass transit systems – at the same time as large numbers of unemployed and under-employed Americans need mobility to find jobs. Keep America Moving is a coalition of transit unions who believe that there must be increased aid to mass transit systems on the part of the federal government.
Even if you are comfortably enclosed in a suburban gated community far far away from the “kind of people” who need to use mass transit to get through their day, this still affects you. Do you drive a car to work? Funding cutbacks might cost you a tire or windshield from a pothole or debris on the road. How will the people who work in your local supermarkets or Starbucks get to work?
There is also the issue of maintaining our democracy to think about. Should only people with a lot of money be able to move around? America already has “pay lanes” on highways in a few areas, where people with money can pay to move into uncongested lanes during rush hour. This is a “market solution” that is in direct opposition to ideas of democracy, in which the community provides for everyone. But market solutions like this also just don’t work. If you want your latte promptly, the worker also has to get to work. So you might want to think about supporting funding for transit systems.
