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I don't see the need yet. When there is a need it will come.
Yea...many people don't see the need, and a lot of people probably never will. Wonder if you're taking into account the hundreds of elderly and disabled who already depend on it. I wonder if you're taking into account all the people who don't have cars or whose cars broke down and now they have to take it. I wonder if you consider there's always people out there standing in the sun for almost an hour waiting on the bus to come...not necessarily at every stop but at several of them and usually in groups. I wonder if you considered the people who often have to walk home after their shifts because they don't have transportation after 6pm. I wonder if you considered the people who've lost their jobs because of the unreliable transportation. I wonder if you've considered that there's a rising number of people here who don't want to have to depend upon a vehicle.
I just wonder about you and several other people...
Not true! Increase efficnecy and ridership and you don't have those problems. They also would likely get tax breaks and credits etc. I'm sure this is what you were talking about before which I understand and am okay with. People won't ride if it can't be affordable. The point is they don't have to have direct government control.
Tax breaks and credits still cost the taxpayer. If it were a profitable business someone would be doing it already. I read a report today that the average US bus system is subsidized at almost 80%, meaning that most small cities need to charge at least 5x more than they do to break even.
Taxi's are a profitable business model, but you can't ride one for $1.
Tax breaks and credits still cost the taxpayer. If it were a profitable business someone would be doing it already. I read a report today that the average US bus system is subsidized at almost 80%, meaning that most small cities need to charge at least 5x more than they do to break even.
Taxi's are a profitable business model, but you can't ride one for $1.
And that's just a sign of a broken system. At one time most transit service was provided by non-government owned companies. I believe the same could be done today as long as they are managed correctly and get some breaks just like those systems did.
Yea...many people don't see the need, and a lot of people probably never will. Wonder if you're taking into account the hundreds of elderly and disabled who already depend on it. I wonder if you're taking into account all the people who don't have cars or whose cars broke down and now they have to take it. I wonder if you consider there's always people out there standing in the sun for almost an hour waiting on the bus to come...not necessarily at every stop but at several of them and usually in groups. I wonder if you considered the people who often have to walk home after their shifts because they don't have transportation after 6pm. I wonder if you considered the people who've lost their jobs because of the unreliable transportation. I wonder if you've considered that there's a rising number of people here who don't want to have to depend upon a vehicle.
I just wonder about you and several other people...
And we pay for it while they ride for free right? Any government funding comes from us. No. We aren't large enough yet. This isn't Atlanta.
And we pay for it while they ride for free right? Any government funding comes from us. No. We aren't large enough yet. This isn't Atlanta.
I don't expect anyone to ride for free. Most transit systems I know of require you to pay to ride and that is exactly what I'd expect here. That seems typical of what I'd expect to hear from you though...automatically expect that because I think something needs to be improved, I expect it to be free or some other nonsense.
And why exactly aren't we large enough? Charlotte is about a quarter or a third the size of Atlanta...maybe not even that...and yet they have an extremely reliable, advanced, and effecient transit system. There are a number of cities that are just barely bigger than Anderson is yet operate more efficent systems, such as Spartanburg and Gastonia.
All cities of a certain size are required by law to provide transportation to people who cannot do it for themselves. The only question is how good a job will we do at it. Will we continue to ignore the system because many people don't technically need it, or will we work to solutions to solve inefficeninces and promote it's usage by people who don't have to and people with few other choices.
And we pay for it while they ride for free right? Any government funding comes from us. No. We aren't large enough yet. This isn't Atlanta.
It's not that we're not large enough yet, it's that we have far too much suburban sprawl to accommodate a bus system. We have sprawl because land is cheap and it's cheap to build houses spread out. However, the roads to these houses are not cheap. Consider how many roads in this county should be widened: Hudson Rd, Stallings Rd, N Hwy 101, and many others. However, widening these roads would probably cost more than increasing the size of the bus system. So how about we put in toll booths around the county to cover the cost of the road widening/maintenance that we desperately need? Why not force people to pay for the roads they use? A lot of people here would complain. How's that different than paying for a bus system? It's not, really. Current property taxes aren't enough to cover the road work necessary for our suburban sprawl.
What we need is new zoning and planning to discourage sprawl and encourage more dense residential areas so that transit would be more desirable. If you want rural living, go out to Northern or Southern Greenville county, but encourage denser development closer to the center of the county.
Even at the current rate of growth for Greer and the current decline for Spartanburg, unless Greer acquires some massive land / population through annexation they still won't surpass Spartanburg population wise by the next census. Now that's at the current rates as of 2010.
This may be telling of the changes to come in the future. The GCS has seen it's white student enrollment drop by 1.3% in the last 5 years while it's hispanic enrollment has increased by 2.1% from 9.9 at the end of 2008 to 12% at the end of the 2012 school year. It's not improbable to believe that the GCS could 1/5th hispanic by the 2020 school year.
Interestingly enough GCS's black enrollment is down by about 1.5% over the last 5 years.
This may telling too but all 3 of the Greer high schools - Blue Ridge, Greer and Riverside lost enrollment from the 2011 school year to the 2012 school year.
In fact Greer High's enrollment has declined each year since 2008. In the spring of '08 the Greer enrollment was around 1,270 students, now it's around 1,075. Losing 195 students in 4 grades over the last 5 years sounds more like rust belt school stats than booming sun belt stats.
My answer to all of this . . . smart growth. If each town is self-sufficient then there is no need for a giant mass transit system. And now I'm just waiting for the board to blow up. Sorry. Remember, the government is here to absolutely destroy your well being.
My answer to all of this . . . smart growth. If each town is self-sufficient then there is no need for a giant mass transit system. And now I'm just waiting for the board to blow up. Sorry. Remember, the government is here to absolutely destroy your well being.
Well what would you consider to be smart growth for the areas that will cause transit to be not so necessary?
politicians of Greenville County are funneling public tax / fees into their own pockets.............. the roads issue should have been fixed. It's not even hard to see.
A few good politicians and clean up some of the political system, Greenville will be okay and prepared for all of this.
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