Re: Bike paths in the news.

tcmedara wrote:
"The Wogster" <wogsterca@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:bXR6f.1456$ki7.50351@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A subway offered free of charge, with less then 3 minutes between trains would mean that it would be faster and more economical to take the subway then to own, insure, fuel and maintain a car.


Great image, and one many of us would love to embrace. The problem is reality. Making a subway "fee of charge" doesn't mean it doesn't cost anything, it just means someone other than the user pays for it. Most public transportation is heaviliy subsidized already, I assume you see a 100% subsidy as preferable. Granted auto transportation is subsidized as well, but much if the subsidy comes from gas taxes themselves. We all pay for roads, but drivers bear the brunt of the cost.

No, it means that the city pays for it out of taxes, just as they pay most road expansion and maintenance, as well. Here, the Feds and Province collect the gasoline taxes, the cities pay most road maintenance. The cities gets some money through transfer payments, but road maintenance including plowing is still a significant cost. The Province here is putting some gas tax money into transit, and Toronto's share allows the city to replace some old noisy polluting buses, with new, quieter and less polluting models. There are other costs associated with large car based cities, for example medical costs from pollution and sedentary life styles some of which is paid for by drivers, but most through government or employer insurance. There is the time cost of lost productivity while people who drive for work, sit in traffic on the clock. Then there is lost land productivity when farm land is used up with urban sprawl, and for large roads and highways.

A subway is often a good way to do it, because rail is more efficient, and less polluting, and takes up less land, in that you can build right over it.

W
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