Monday, April 30, 2007

Metro Rates Higher? Fight Back

Look, I don't take public transit nearly enough. Most of us don't, because we have an option. That the MTA is considering a fare hike makes me sick. The majority of people who take transit in L.A., do so cause they cannot afford it.

To try to balance your books on the backs of the poor is an injustice. In fact, past fare hikes have always caused ridership to go down while fare reductions did the opposite.

If the MTA goes ahead with these hikes, I suggest that as many people as possible who ride the MTA take to the streets in cars -- however they can -- and strike the MTA. The lack of riders and, more importantly, the increase in traffic will send a message that may finally get through.

I like Villaraigosa, but where does he stand on these fare hikes? Where does the City Council stand? The Board of Supervisors. It's time to hold people accountable.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

miles, i dont even know where to start with this... its just so off base and wrong. this has michael moore written all over it, just brimming over with overzealous and non factual statements meant to create emotion from your continuance that obviously knows very little about the situation. sorry to call you out, but this is absolutely absurd logic. mta has a billion dollar deficit on their hands because of thinking like this. a laundry list of costs have risen in the past 10 years and yet the fare for metro has not because of eric mann's backwardly racist consent decree. granted, certain changes need to be made to the fare hike but to say its unjustified makes no sense. LA's fares are less than half of any major city and yet we want to expand rail and bus lines, something has to give. if fares dont increase the other option is that lines will be cut, which will be alot worse for all those people who actually DO take public transit as a means of getting around (the poor, as well non, you're trying to represent.) for it's statements like, "To try to balance your books on the backs of the poor is an injustice" that make LA so... LA. libs for the sake of being libs. so please refrain from telling your readers to fight back, though i assume if they're agreeing with such a post, they don't take public transit anyway and therefore them fighting back won't be any different from what they're currently doing anyway, driving in their cars everywhere even when there's a perfectly suitable alternative... the bus stop a half a block away.

check out metroriderLA's fare increase plan for a more informative approach to Metro's financial woes:

http://metrorider.elhay.net/2007/04/30/editorial-metroriderlas-fair-fare-proposal/

Miles said...

i disagree. will follow up later in the week with reasons why keeping the fares low or lowering them further will only help.