Where do you stand on the Capital Metro Fare Hikes? (Austin: income, living in)

[chickenfry]

i live way north and west. i stay very local so no need for public transportation. i only support it because i know that there are some that have no means to get anywhere without it.
as for the light rail, i would love to hop on and get downtown for downtown things. things i rarely do because parking etc is such a hassle. i voted "no" each and every time the light rail was on the ballot cuz i knew it was a good idea but likely to never come to fruition. need i say more?
just to clarify, when i am in manhattan or dc or some other big city there is nothing i love more than getting on the subway, metro whatever and having others do the driving

[twange]

Originally Posted by chickenfry

i voted "no" each and every time the light rail was on the ballot cuz i knew it was a good idea but likely to never come to fruition. need i say more?

Well, way to have a loser mentality. If more people would have voted "yes" in 2000, Austin would have a nice LR design up and running by now. That plan had a huge match of funds by the Feds - which CM did not have when they floated the Metrorail Redline proposal. That's why it's floundering, they tried to do it on the cheap. And the 2000 plan was designed to go where Austin needed it most, instead of Leander.

I for one would love to hear you "say more" on why you would vote no for something even though it sounds like a good idea. That's like not voting for the candidate you believe in, out of fear that they won't win.

Doesn't make a g*ddamn bit of sense to me.

[bomber991]

Does anyone here know what percent of Capital Metros budget comes from fares? Isn't it something like less than 10%?

YES, found it here:
http://www.capmetro.org/docs/FY2010%20Budget.pdf (broken link)

Look at page 22. Third Party Fares make up 3.6% and regular fares make up 4.9%, bringing their total income from fares to a whopping 8.5%.

I think what they should do is just make the bus service free, and figure out a way to cut their costs by 8.5%. The service itself already sucks balls, at least this will greatly help out people where not having to spend $20 a month on a bus pass would greatly improve their life.

[chickenfry]

Twange- i don't have a loser mentality, i tend to learn from experience. give a monopoly money, they produce an inferior product if they produce a product at all. cedar park "opted out" of the capitol metro debaucle years ago cuz after their citizens paying, and paying and getting nothing but ineffiency they realized the error of their ways. now the leander light rail has just reaffirmed their decision

[tibbar]

I went to the bus site and found a route planner. I would have to walk about 1.5 miles to get to the bus stop and it will take 1 hour 49 minutes and 2 transfers to get to Barton Creek Mall from my home and cost $4.50 for a round trip.

[twange]

Originally Posted by chickenfry

Twange- i don't have a loser mentality, i tend to learn from experience. give a monopoly money, they produce an inferior product if they produce a product at all. cedar park "opted out" of the capitol metro debaucle years ago cuz after their citizens paying, and paying and getting nothing but ineffiency they realized the error of their ways. now the leander light rail has just reaffirmed their decision

But to be reactionary and vote no every time REGARDLESS of design,fund matching etc... doesn't make sense to me. If the design is good, why vote it down?

[chickenfry]

i voted no cuz once they started taking my money, i would not be able to "opt out" when they failed. now here we are years later, they have taken a ton of our money and what's too show for it? i rest my case

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by tibbar

I went to the bus site and found a route planner. I would have to walk about 1.5 miles to get to the bus stop and it will take 1 hour 49 minutes and 2 transfers to get to Barton Creek Mall from my home and cost $4.50 for a round trip.

I think the developer of your subdivision is as much at fault as CapMetro. Density makes for good transit and there isn't a substitute for it.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by chickenfry

i voted no cuz once they started taking my money, i would not be able to "opt out" when they failed. now here we are years later, they have taken a ton of our money and what's too show for it? i rest my case

Yes, but it can be argued that your money is being wasted now because of the "no" vote in 2000. I'll agree that Capital Metro did a terrible job of making a coherent proposal to the voters in both 2000 and in 2004, but with the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see that we would have been better off with a "yes" vote in 2000 (real light rail) and a "no" vote in 2004 (fake light rail on freight train tracks). That would have been better than a no/no vote, or the no/yes vote that ended up happening.

[twange]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Yes, but it can be argued that your money is being wasted now because of the "no" vote in 2000. I'll agree that Capital Metro did a terrible job of making a coherent proposal to the voters in both 2000 and in 2004, but with the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see that we would have been better off with a "yes" vote in 2000 (real light rail) and a "no" vote in 2004 (fake light rail on freight train tracks). That would have been better than a no/no vote, or the no/yes vote that ended up happening.

Exactly. Those two proposals were/are WORLDS APART. CM absolutely wasted money and community support with this Metrorail project and if one assumes that many voters will hold this against the city for future projects...

So chickenfry, will you still vote no if the next proposal looks well-planned, was managed by an agency OTHER than CM and had a chance to improve the PT of Austin significantly?

I do understand why you would be skeptical but I think it's counter-productive to condemn all PT projects based on the failures of the past. Management and strategies can change. Public perception and need can change. Projects like these should be considered on a case-by-case basis.