Though it may be too soon to tell, the recent loss of funding may indicate a gain in acknowledgement of facts as more people realize the true mass transit system in our country is the automobile and what public money there is needs to go towards improving the roads and bridges upon which it moves.
Editorial: Natural allies watch as transit gets beaten up
If environmentalists remain on sidelines, public transportaton will continue to lose
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, September 1, 2007
Politically speaking, transit in California is the equivalent of the little kid who always gets picked on by the schoolyard bully. This year at state budget time, the bully -- let's call him Arnold -- had no trouble stealing transit's lunch money. He diverted some $1.3 billion in gas taxes that had been slated to go to local bus and rail operators was diverted to help paper over the state's deficit instead.
The top leaders in the Legislature, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata from Oakland and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez from Los Angeles, both represent urban areas. Each has thousands of constituents who depend on transit. Buses and trains in their communities are overflowing. Both leaders opposed transit cuts initially but, in the end, both voted for them.
Newspapers wrote editorials bemoaning transit cuts, but it didn't matter. Transit's pockets were easy to pick, and they were.
It is clear that transit riders are woefully overmatched in the fierce competition for shrinking state dollars. Transit leaders have not made a persuasive case to the Legislature that their customers matter. In part that's because many of the people who depend on transit are poor. In part that's because as a group, transit users are powerless and unorganized.
But in large part transit's weakness reflects the lack of support from an interest group that is is powerful and organized: California's environmental community. Environmentalists are transit's natural allies. Or at least they should be. Yet during the budget fight this year, environmental groups sat on the sidelines and watched transit get beaten up.
