ON MONDAY, THE CHRONICLE reported that Mayor Annise Parker is open to rethinking area transit issues, including a proposal pitched by Bill King roughly two years ago to eliminate METRO fares altogether. As we suggested then, we do not think that the fare structure significantly dampens area transit utilization, making this a solution in search of a problem. On this particular story, we’ll defer to commenter RebellionRevolution to make the case:
With all due respect, it isn’t the fares that are keeping people from riding Metro. It’s Metro’s lack of providing a consistently dependable product to it’s customers that keeps people from riding Metro. Free fares aren’t the solution,. Getting people to work on time, everyday, is.
That comment, incidentally, has generated 420 “thumbs ups” to only 30 “thumbs downs,” an impressive ratio.
Turning back to the story, we find this interesting graf laying out one of several of the mayor’s upcoming “choices on a number of difficult policy questions”:
What should the city and Metro do to encourage dense, walkable development along rail lines that could absorb growth and spare prairies and fields from being paved over with subdivisions and shopping centers?
We don’t have much evidence in Houston that rail lines “absorb growth and spare prairies and fields from being paved over.” Rather, if one rides the Main Street rail line, one sees “development” in the form of parking lots and fields where buildings once stood, not to mention a few derelict buildings, all still awaiting the promised transformation to Houtopia if we would just build rail.
So, we would suggest that if Mike Snyder is the one who provided that editorial comment in a news story, it should have been struck. And if that’s how Mayor Parker’s advisors are thinking about this issue (since it’s really not clear who was editorializing in the news story), we would suggest that the mayor might want to go read the comment above (with the 420/30 positive ratio*) and ask if METRO-as-Smart-Growth-Developer fits commenter RebellionRevolution’s sensible, popular view of the mission of the area’s taxpayer-supported transit organization.
* We expect pols and journos alike can understand math that is so simple.
BLOGVERSATION: Rhymes with Right.
