Friday, April 22, 2011

Are We the Same Species?

Mass transit activists and just regular people who ride the bus and light rail in the Twin Cities met with our governor and some members of the legislature yesterday. They tried to get across what will happen if the legislature is successful in cutting transit as it wishes.

We're talking halving the number of routes available or doubling the fares. And this in a system that already has buses on the busiest routes at 20 minute intervals and fares at $2.25 in rush hour ($1.75 off-peak).

And how do you think Michael Beard, the Republican chair of the House Transportation Committee, responded to all of the evidence of effect provided by real people?

According to MinnPost: "It was actually discouraging," Beard said, "to see how many people are dependent on the government to move them around."

2 comments:

Linda Myers said...

Oh, my gosh. A governor with this perspective?

Daughter Number Three said...

No, Linda -- at least it wasn't the governor. He's supportive of transit. It was the chair of the Transportation Committee in our lower house. In his head, transportation = roads and bridges, and everyone in their own two ton hunk of steel and plastic.