All these candidates claim they’re proactive, farseeing, visionary, etc., yet I haven’t heard one word about mass transit. Gas ain’t going back below $4, the city buses are full; the time is ripe for broadening mass transit systems. The car dealers are sucking wind; they’d be happy to sell buses to states and cities.
Uh, instead of parroting each other, why don’t you “visionaries” start using your brains. Nothing personal.
Posted by Intercourse in General
Because every government’s budget is tight due to the economic downturn. Cities can’t invest, the state can’t invest, and the federal government might, but they know they can’t afford to.
If that was true Brian no one would be talking about healthcare at a hundred times the cost of improving mass transit.
Also; anyone like trains? I love the things. Be nice to go back to a sort of film noir 1950’s type train based transit system. Give me an excuse to break out the old fedora.
Baltimore has been trying to fund their red line, which is a good start to a comprehensive public transit system in that city.
The Feds want them to use BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) on a line that should be heavy rail subway. The funding metrics under the Bush administration are ludicrous.
I get ~45mpg in my diesel car, so I don’t mind fuel costing $5; hopefully it will allow these clowns to reconsider federal funding for mass-transit.
We are not New York or Philadelphia, Wilmington is a suburban city.
I work in Paoli, PA, my wife works in Newark. My neighbor works in Philadlephia ,PA and his wife works in New Jersey. Devise a public transportation system for that.
Intercourse says:
“If that was true Brian no one would be talking about healthcare at a hundred times the cost of improving mass transit”
Politicians are talking about healthcare (I am assuming you are talking about national/single payer) because they are pandering to the less informed and less educated for votes. Massachusetts healthcare (which Markell has adopted as his reform) has soared 64% in its first year and are budgeted to exceed next year projection by 200%
The darling Canadian system is crumbling.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/I.....2509335931
Who is John Galt?
Good question. He’s commented several times over the past few months, but I’ve no clues.
John Galt is a character in a book by Ayn Rand.
Somehow, more of our fat asses on busses or trains sounds like a cheaper and more efficient use of fuel.
Working at home in this internet age is another solution, unfortunately, most of you fuckers just blog instead of getting anything done.
My solution in a nutshell:
Wilmington-to-Middletown-to-Dover-to-Georgetown-to-Rehoboth light rail system. It can be built above the ground, along the existing Rt. 1 corridor. I’m no engineer, but I certainly think it could be done. How do we pay for it? Make junior year of high school a service year to the state, which would save hundreds of millions of dollars a year that could be freed up to spend on mass transit, health insurance, and other educational opportunities.
Also I read in an article about how in cities we could implement smart car stations. At these stations you could pick up a car from a queue, drive it to another destination in the city and drop it off. What do you guys think?
John Galt: Just another uninformed, uneducated wanting to keep the status quo. If he knew anything he would know that single payer is a NON governmental program. Its not Canada, or Britians model? Its an american model. Maybe he should get some education from the doctors and nurses…PNHP.org, the fastest growing doctor group in the country. They are sick and tired of the for profits telling them what treatments to use on their patients. Sick and tired of paying millions of dollars for malpractice insurance, which doesnt exist in the single payer model.
He should now that our medical society here in Delaware and 28 statewide organizations who have studied the subject agree on single payer. He should know that SB 177 has had 3 independent studies right here in Delaware and all three of them stated, “single payer is needed”. He would know that single payer would treat every person in Delaware for every health care need, and still save the State $8 million a DAY this year, and $9million a day next year.
But Dover dimwits especially on the JOint Finance Committee can only think in terms, “of cut, cut cut the services we now have”. They are throwing people off medicaid everday who desperately need it.
So, Galt is either a Markell or Carney supporter as both are looking at the disasterous Mass. model delivered up by a republican! I havent heard what program Judge Lee is proposing?
You have to wonder why these candidates look out of state, when SB 177 is already sponsored by 18 legislators, and the plan to keep our jobs here, bring more corporations to Delaware and care for medical, dental, vision, long term care, everything. I call those not supporting single payer, incrementalists…but you can bet when this economy tanks this fall, they will be forced to go to a single player plan.
Got off track there! Mass transportation should begin immediately. There is no reason why we can’t have a light rail system from Bear to Newark and into Wilmington. Think of the Long Island Railroad stopping in all those towns to get folks to work in NYCity. Its cheap, fast and efficient.
It could link up to the Wilmington Train station for those going north on Amtrak. Many of us in Wilmington were asking for the ole trolley system back, but the Mayor thought “bus’s that looked like trolleys would be cute”….how is that working out.
The system would create jobs for the jobless, be cost effective for the riders, and the bus system could be used on the heaviest traveled highways where a lite rail train system wouldnt be impractical.
I liked the idea of having junior year of high school a service year. After a ten hour day with a pick and shovel hauling those huge railroad ties, those little bastards would be too tired to terrorize liberalgeek at the mall. But then again, by summer break, they’d be in such good shape that we couldn’t go to the beach without getting sand kicked in our faces.
I hope we do not build and store the Light rail cars and service them out of the Chrysler facility in Newark.
Just think how crazy it would be to use part of both car plants as light rail transportation hubs.
The Wilmington train station and the West End Switching Yards might also be available.
There is a rail line to the Port of Wilmington, but improving that area would create a renaissance for the already depressed area of Southbridge and businesses out New Castle Avenue.
Someone crank back the clock and look to see where architect Lenny Sophrin is today.
.
“”Intercourse says:
Working at home in this internet age is another solution, unfortunately, most of you fuckers just blog instead of getting anything done. “”
Do you have some valid at home internet jobs? Let me know.
Actually, I was kidding.
John Galt is a character in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Mysterious postings of “Who is John Galt?” appear throughout the first few hundred pages.
In the book, Galt instigates a “strike” by some of society’s highest achievers - inventors, engineers, surgeons, captains of industry - urging them to give up their responsibility to everyone else.
The metaphor for Galt is: “We’re the titans (atlas) that hold up the world and no longer want that burden so we’re shrugging it off.”
So Liz - this Galt is neither uniformed, nor uneducated and is neither a Carney nor a Markell supporter.
Liz
In a single payer system, who decides what a doctors visit will cost?
Your NON goverment board or my negotiated price between me and my doctor?
Ha, touche!… No seriously, I wrote about my idea for freeing up money and helping the education system over at my blog. It’s not very scientific, just a thought. My point of stating it here is that it would free up a ton of money to help with the infrastructure of the state, including mass transit. I don’t want those little bastards using picks, I want them getting a dose of reality (Not XBox Live reality).
Nice! 13 posts before Liz and someone else hijacked the thread!
Word!
LOL…it’s been so long since I’ve read that that the joke totally fell on deaf ears. Ugh…I think I was a junior in high school? That’s a decade ago.
Either way, I still don’t know who our John Galt is.
Very good Selander….I’m impressed!
Why have none of you concerned with this transit issue noted that Sunday bus service returns to Wilmington tomorrow? It’s funded as a one year trial with limited runs but everyone expects the goals to be met and we need to work for further expansion next year. Kent County also got limited Saturday service in the deal.
The expansion comes as a result of the three year ‘Campaign for Sunday Bus Service’. The campaign was a project of the A. Philip Randolph Institute of Delaware and headed by Scott Spencer, our Transportation Committee chair. It was accomplished with the help of lots of other groups and individuals– ATU Local 842,ACORN, IMAC (Wilmington’s African-American Minister’s group), Clean Air Council, Elderly and Disabled Transit Advisory Committee (DART’s citizen committee) and the Delmarva Rail Passenger Association. We also had lots of people sign petitions and testify at schedule change hearings.
This was a long haul where we constantly engaged legislators and other decision makers. We testified before several committees, held press conferences and did outreach. Our effort was the only new initiative funded in the budget this year. As Scott says, “This was truly people powered politics.”
There’s lots more to do. The mass transit needs in Sussex County are critical. Since planning is at the level of county government we need to focus there for higher density housing and other issues that will help establish more mass transit in Delaware. In Dover we need to work to make mass transit a greater focal point of state transportation and planning policy. The cost of gas helps but there is still lots of work to be done.
The Campaign for Sunday Bus Service will hold a rally tomorrow, June 29, as the first buses roll from Rodney Square at 9 a.m. Members of our coalition will be there. Since this is an APRI initiated event, we’ll have coffee and donuts donated by the Dunkin Donuts at 9th and Orange. We have arranged that the first all day bus pass will be purchased in honor of Maryanne McGonegal, who always helped us push the envelope. There will also be an important announcement about the next steps of our campaign.
Come out an consider getting involved.
Shouldn’t have mentioned local 842 Mark it probably put a bad taste in the mouths on this blog Anything involving a Union must be bad
Sunday Bus Service Finally!!! Thanks for all the hard work.
Too bad Dart has cancelled the ‘Rail to the Fair’ train this year (at least that’s what Dart’s recording says).
Two steps forward, one step back.
Too bad Dart has cancelled the ‘Rail to the Fair’ train this year (at least that’s what Dart’s recording says).
Yes they did the reason too costly but don’t they charge a premium for this I have never ridden it do I do not know
DELDOT the agency that runs DART (DTC) is all about their “CORE BUSINESS” WHICH IS ROAD BUILDING AND MAINTENANCE, NOT OVERALL TRANSPORTATION.
I have sat through many hours of testamony from DELDOT Secretary Carolann Wicks hearing during her presentations to the JFC and others after she talks about DTC/DART she then says now I will talk about our “CORE BUSINESS” followed by the high way mainenance and new building presentation, and during this part the words “CORE BUSINESS” is repeated a whole bunch of times.
She makes sure that whom ever she is speaking too is clear that roads and not transportation is DELDOT’s priority
“I work in Paoli, PA, my wife works in Newark. My neighbor works in Philadlephia ,PA and his wife works in New Jersey. Devise a public transportation system for that.”
Why? Public transit is not about getting everyone everywhere. It’s about setting up alternative transit for the most heavily traveled routes. Some people, particularly two-job families, will always have transportation needs that buck the majority trends; designing a system around these outliers is exactly the wrong way to proceed.
“We are not New York or Philadelphia, Wilmington is a suburban city.”
No more than New York or Philadelphia is — it has a densely settled core surrounded by suburban areas that are less densely settled, except for nodes at transportation junctures. Once upon a time, those nodes were the points where roads reached rivers (Newport, which you can deduce from its name alone, Milford, Seaford). Later they were the junctions of roads and railroads (Newark, plus all the towns down the middle of the state along the old Delaware line). Nowadays they’re the points of interstate exits (Christiana around the hospital). I realize what are now higher-density nodes in the sprawl were once independent towns, but the point is the same: Transportation availability determines settlement patterns. The reason Delaware is screwed up is that it works things the other way around — we let a developer buy a far-off farm on the cheap, then respond to the new homeowners bitching and moaning that the roads are overcrowded.
If the state were serious about increasing bus ridership (light rail would be nice, but would require a capital commitment I doubt the state would ever make), it would stop acting as if its only mission is to move low-income people around.
As it now operates, DART is nearly useless unless you’re riding to or from the city. To get from my home in Hockessin (a place I moved because it was on a bus line to my job, which was in the city at the time) to my job in Brandywine Hundred takes 25 minutes by automobile. It would take 90 minutes by DART — even though buses run within a few hundred yards of both my house and my workplace. Why? Because nearly every route in New Castle County goes from Rodney Square to a distant point and back again.
The obvious solution — so obvious that road planners opted for it 40 years ago, and called it Del. 141 — are ring routes around the city. One on 141 would be stunningly obvious. In my case, I could ride 48 in to 141, then 141 to Concord Pike, then Concord Pike to my workplace. It would still take longer than a car commute, but maybe only 35-45 minutes — a tradeoff I would willingly make.
Now back to your transportation situation. As you’re well aware, a Paoli-Newark line is never going to happen, but even the more heavily traveled routes are hard to co-ordinate over state lines. But if better mass-transit routes are designed, it will influence the siting of jobs. American sprawl has been intensified by the subsidization of roads over other transit methods; it’s why you work in Paoli (or Malvern or King of Prussia). Unless she works for UD, I’m guessing your wife’s Newark workplace is actually miles from Main Street. This is the result of conscious decisions by government post WWII. Road-based transportation decentralized the system, making it harder to disable via bombing, while also fueling our economic boom by inducing every family to buy a car (and, eventually, every individual). As a result, American families, which spent just a few percent of income on transportation costs before the war, now spend upwards of 20% — and that figure was back before gas passed $2 a gallon (the bulk of that figure still represents the vehicle rather than the fuel). Now the bill has come due. (Our discomfort about it should give us a clue as to how are grandchildren are going to feel about climate change.)
Now look at Washington DC’s experience with the installation of light rail-subway lines. Unlike other cities with similar growth rates — Phoenix is one I’m familiar with — which have grown in more or less uniform density as population has increased, Washington-area development has been channeled along its Metro lines. The difference is showing up in housing values now that gas is expensive. It’s only been about 30 years and the effect already is dramatic. The lines were laid out to serve existing population centers, of course, but get off anywhere on the yellow line in suburban Virginia and you don’t see a dying little downtown — you see clusters of high-rise office buildings.
Is this government planning? Of course — but I would argue it’s a case of government taking the same direction the private market would take, just doing it faster and more efficiently.
Al the reason for bad transit is:
DELDOT the agency that runs DART (DTC) is all about their “CORE BUSINESS” WHICH IS ROAD BUILDING AND MAINTENANCE, NOT OVERALL TRANSPORTATION.
BTW i have heard about the ring idea and I think it would work DART defintly needs mutible transfer points throughout the state.
Some have also raised the idea of using the existing Para Transit Service to get people to bus stops from isolated areas. This may also involve encourage those with disabilities who are able to access the Fixed route busses to do so even if it is for part of the ride.
Getting people to bus stops from isolated areas is not cost-effective; all we’d be doing is saving them some gas money at public expense. The idea is to make people who live in isolated areas shoulder the expenses associated with living in isolated areas.
Lots of cities and regions manage to operate both roads and mass transit in balance. Our problem is bureaucratic inertia; old system, old ideas. Out-of-state talent is a must, and not just at the top.
Getting people to bus stops from isolated areas is not cost-effective; all we’d be doing is saving them some gas money at public expense. The idea is to make people who live in isolated areas shoulder the expenses associated with living in isolated areas
Depending on how you do it. The State has a Para Transit service that goes to the areas now Have the State build park and ride areas out in some of these areas to have the PARA busses pick and deliver these folks to a bus line on a set time basis might work
if you are eligible DART ’s Para Transit service will pick you up at your door in a place called Selbyville which is along the state line South take you to Milford Walmart Meet a Kent County PAra bus take you to Smyrna Rest to another PARA bus and that bus will take if you wish to Claymont or anywhere in between We run statewide anywhere in the state now why not use the existing resource. Of course the bosses at DART would have to crack down on poor scheduling and get it improved
Al,
Philadelphia is as you state is densely populated core, however it also has a heavily populated suburban area (Chester County 482,000- Delaware County 556,000- Bucks County 623,000 - Montgomery County 775,600) with a rail infrastructure built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railroad, and the Reading railroad. It is viable because there is a large demand. There is also demand for public transportation in and out of the city.
Philadelphia has great museums, dining, cultural and sporting events, it is still a hub of activity. Wilmington is no longer the center of activity in New Castle County. The jobs are in the suburbs, the biggest sporting events are in Dover and Newark at Delaware Stadium and in my opinion, and the best restaurants are in Rehoboth.
When I lived in Oyster Bay, NY. My wife and I could drive 10 minutes to the train station, take the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, walk 3 blocks and see a play at the Gershwin Theater, have dinner and catch the train back for about $20 in commuting expenses.
As for bus service, in your example you catch the bus near your house, you then would need a bus depot at the corner of 48 and 141 so you and your neighbors can catch their bus to Wilmington, Newark, and New Castle or as in your case continue to North Wilmington. You will then take the bus to perhaps Concord Mall, where you will take another bus that will take you to WDEL. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it will take you longer then 45 minutes to complete your commute.
I counter your example of Washington D.C with Portland, Oregon http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8643
And finally, you state “Is this government planning? Of course — but I would argue it’s a case of government taking the same direction the private market would take, just doing it faster and more efficiently.”
Can you give me one example of where the goverment took the same direction as the free market but did it faster and more efficiently ?
Paul Clark and Chris Coons and their hanger-ons are planning sprawled density with no plans for mass trans. I asked Weiner about light rail for the Bayberry/Middletown growth but was told that it was too expensive. DelDOT is going a billion five in the hole to extend the 301 toll road through the developing area instead only to add the traffic in over the Route one bridge and onto 1-95 clusterfuck exchange.
High density sprawl will not create the critical mass for trains but if we stuck the growth into the urban centers and kept it out of the cornfields we’d be smart growth planning.
Philly planners are utilizing the radiating train tracks and building density there. New Jersey’s traditional towns are almost all along the train lines.
John: The ratios you describe are not much different from those in Delaware; the density in the city is higher than outside it. And, in contrast to your contention, the city of Wilmington still brings in about 30,000 workers daily from outside the city. Indeed, that’s why the system is designed the way it is — that’s where the heaviest usage is, and therefore a smaller subsidy is required. What the planners fail to factor in: if we could reduce traffic on I-95 by 10%, we could avoid hundreds of millions in highway construction/repair costs. We don’t factor it in because many of those dollars are federal. Once carbon emissions taxes start, the logic of increased mass transit becomes even more obvious.
That said, the sheer numbers in Delaware would not support rail as cost-effective, which I acknowledged.
For my bus system idea, you don’t need a “depot” at locations along 141. I’m sure you’ve taken public bus systems in various cities; are you telling me you’ve never made a transfer? It requires a shelter of the sort we already have, just a little longer. And the bus runs right in front of my workplace, not to Concord Mall. I seriously doubt it would take more than 45 minutes. I drive the route nearly every day, and I have ridden buses most of my life. I have a pretty good idea of how long it would take, particularly on express runs, which is what a 141 bus would be. I haven’t ridden the Newark-Wilmington express in many years, but it used to take about 15 minutes longer than driving — well worth the supposed “inconvenience.”
If you expect me to believe a Cato Institute “study” of light rail in Portland as unbiased, forget about it. For a partisan response, see this: http://www.lightrailnow.org/my.....07-10a.htm
If you prefer a rebuttal from a fellow conservative, Paul Weyrich weighs in with this:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org.....a-success/
The long and short of it, as best I can tell, is that Mr. O’Toole is a typical libertarian crank and lifelong Portland resident with a hard-on for the light rail project. My question would be, if it’s such a failure, why is Portland growing so well and routinely listed among the country’s most liveable cities?
As for your last question, the examples abound, from mine safety to air traffic control. No, we didn’t wait to see what the free market would bring about, but conservative economists all argue the market would reach the same point. Sorry for your philosophical hobby horse that we didn’t do the controlled experiment of doing without them just to see what would happen.
Beyond that, I try not to get between a masturbator, er, Randian and his source of amusement. Educate yourself beyond Ayn Rand and your conservative choir on your own time; it’s not my job.
Oh, Al. The conversation was going so nicely. I was thinking to myself, ‘Gee, that Al Mascitti is so smart and well-informed. I wonder if he’s planning to attend the Markell grand opening. I’d really like to meet him in person and find out about his background.’. Then you had to go and bring up masturbation. Sheesh.
Al,
Last year my niece was studying John Maynard Keyes, she approached her professor about me and my background. He asked if I would write a paper contrasting the Keynesian economic theory versus laissez-faire economics, which I did. In the subsequent months we continued to converse via e-mails. I can assure you in all of our conversations we never made any accusations on our masturbation habits.
You also assume I am a conservative; I’m a libertarian, big difference.
You also make the assumption that since I took the name of a character from one Ayn Rand book that you can somehow in your mind wrap me in a predefined package of an objectionist philosopher. I have also read “The Wealth of Nations”, “The Federalist Papers”, nearly every word written by Jefferson, Friedman, and Madison. How does that “fit” into your box?
If you consider Henry Hazlett, Milton Fridman, Thomas Jefferson and even John Stossel as “typical libertrain cranks” , I’ll take that company over yours.
If you were a conservative you would somehow say I wasn’t patriotic, being liberal, you just resort to calling me stupid.
If public transportation is to be viable in New Castle County, three things must happen.
1.) Moving hubs out of the city and into the suburbs.
2.) Building park and rides.
3.) Buses servicing arterial routes.
In your case you would travel south of RT.48 to the intersection of RT.141, where the bus would drop you off on the corner of the intersection, you would then have to cross 6 lanes of traffic and two turning lanes to catch your bus to take you to Concord Pike. This would attract as many people as the Ship Yard Shops. A simple three sided Plexiglas structure will not suffice.
I depot/park-n-ride would have to be built on the NW corner of the intersection where people can get on and off the busses safely and with little disturbance to the flow of traffic.
Will this ever happen? Highly doubtfull, after all we are dealing with the people that gave us the three tierd high school diploma.
John Stossel from 20/20?
Yes, that John Stossel. In his book “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity” he starts on page 281 on why he is a libertarian.
A very good book. I just happen to squeeze it in between masturbation and reading Ayn Rand.
Yet you didn’t name yourself Publius; you named yourself after a character in a bad novel by a bad philosopher. The masturbation criticism stands.
Anyone who approaches all situations thinking a particular philosophy answers all problems best is masturbating. Citing John Stossel proves it. And please, spend your time with him; I don’t want you. If you think six lanes of traffic are an insurmountable problem, you don’t understand the concept of the left turn, let alone the fundamental problems with libertarianism.
By the way, there’s a big difference between stupidity and masturbation. I never said you were stupid.
And since you don’t frequent that intersection, you’re apparently unaware that a 2 million-square-foot development has been proposed there. Don’t worry, though, there won’t be any increase in mass transit through there, I’m sure. As you note — it fits in so nicely with your anti-government biases — these are the people who gave us the three-tiered diploma. Better to write off all government as a bad deal and wish fervently the whole world would adopt your superior philosophy.
Sorry, John, but I’ve been around a long time. I’ve never met a Randian who wasn’t a selfish, junvenile asshole at heart. Maybe you’re the exception, but then again you named yourself John Galt, so I kind of doubt it.
Some of us use our real names because we’re not ‘droids. Have fun masturbating to your pictures of Sally Hemings.
Geez, I think I hit a nerve.
3 posts in five minutes.
Just breakin’ ‘em up for ease of reading, John. But of course, striking a nerve is all you were here for in the first place, wasn’t it? Another right-winger playing their favorite game, “Gotcha!”
So you struck a nerve. So what? Gonna add that to your resume next to “I correspond with a professor! In college!” or does it get its own bullet?
Even though I’m an asshole about it, the “nerve” is a valid one. Anyone who approaches problems already knowing what solution he’ll propose isn’t really trying to solve problems. I’ll call it “goofing around” instead of masturbating if it salves your sensibilities.
Randians are particularly humor-inducing. When a woman preaching rugged individualism develops a cult following of dittoheads, any added satire would be redundant.
And one thing I notice is that your posts are 100% solution-free. Hence, my charge that you’re visiting just to, um, goof off. So now that you’ve gotten a nasty reaction, I assume your existence has been validated. Or would you rather talk about mass transit?
Al,
In 2007 DART had a budget of $65,000,000.00, DART/DELDOT supplies no breakdown on this number, do they include health insurance, pension monies or is it just daily operating expenses? If we assume *2% of the states 853,466 people use public transportation, that equates to 17,000 people using DART daily. The cost therefore to ride a DART bus is $16.00 per day, per person. (This is based on 316 days since Sunday service was not yet available). DART currently charges $1.15 for a one way trip in New Castle County.
I had to use statewide numbers since DART offers no breakdown on numbers by County. If I am to assume that 50% of DART’s budget goes to Para-Transit, the numbers still don’t look good. Again, there is not breakdown of where any of the money goes.
In doing research on this, I found the whole thing very transparent. No breakdown of expenses, number of employees (they do list 32 department managers), advertising cost, insurance, benefits, etc.
DART lists on their web site for fiscal year 2008 an operating budget of $88,500,000.00 with an income of $15,800,000.00 from fares and other sources (advertising?) and a state subsidy of $72,600,000.00. DART’s budget is increasing at 10% per year and closing in on $100,000,000.00, if my estimate of 2% is anywhere close; this is a gross amount of money to be spent on such a small percentage of the population.
I will save you from the hard line libertarian position of eliminating DART altogether, as I recognize that there is some support for some type of public transportation.
So, what would I do?
I believe an audit must be done to see exactly what is being spent and where. I would make the findings public and let the taxpayers decide by Referendum as to what segments of DART they would like to see continue.
Are you ready for health care?
* I found no hard numbers for DART ridership; I did find ridership rates of 5% in New York, 4% in Boston and San Francisco. I believe 2% is on the high end for Delaware.
John: I would never attempt to defend the spending habits of DART, and fully support your call for an audit with the purpose of eliminating office jobs. As I noted in an earlier missive, amid my insults, the state runs it not as a people mover, but as a subsidized way of transporting the poor. That’s basically my starting point — how do you increase ridership so that the per-rider subsidy drops to a manageable level?
Re: health care. Not my issue, sorry. We can easily contain costs if only the Libertarians (or anyone else, for that matter) can convince people to care less about their health. Seriously, though, we already know that the key to curbing health care costs is to spend less on the dying. To use the case I know best as an example, my mother spend the last seven months of her emphysema-shortened life on a ventilator. Huge cost, minimal return — but you try to tell your mother you’re going to pull the plug on her. Multiply that by millions of people a year, and you’re looking at some enormous costs.
“As it now operates, DART is nearly useless unless you’re riding to or from the city.”
Al, that’s probably true for the most part, but there are subtle signs of improvement. For example, the Route 55 bus (Peoples Plaza to Rodney Square) now goes all the way into Newark. Before, you got off at the Chestnut Hill Park & Ride, and had to wait almost an hour for the connecting bus that would take you all the way to Main St. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I can now commute conveniently by bus - it must have been a mistake by DelDot!
Oh, and am I the only one who thinks it’s ironic that the central theme of Atlas Shrugged was the government meddling with the railroad builders? I heard the other day that Amtrak has higher ridership than any time in history, and they’re still losing money.
John Galt: YOU dont choose what your doctors charge? But under single payer, YOU choose your doctor and hospital and all care givers, not some HMO, or insurance company who gives you a list of who to pick from…get educated on the topic!
Randians are mostly loonies.
Liz,
Recently my sister in law had an accident that required an ambulance trip to the hospital.
She is self employed and only carries major medical coverage.
When she received the bill from the ambulance company it was for $1,200.000. She negotiated the bill down to $200.00. During her conversation with the ambulance company, she was told that the $1,200.00 is the negotiated price with the insurance companies.
The single payer system relies on its entire savings on eliminating the overhead that insurance companies incur by doing business, unless I’m missing something, it will have no effect on the actual cost of the service to the patient.
We currently have corporate health care, the Markell-Hillary proposal is warmed over socialism.
Suppose instead of your employer purchasing health insurance for you, they deposited that money into an account much like a 529 College Fund. The money goes in tax free and isn’t taxed if it is spent for medical services.
My employer medical benefits equates to $6.00 an hour, as does my wife’s employer. For the both of us our employers purchases $25,000.00 in health insurance yearly. After just 4 years we would accumulate $100,000.00, would we still need some type of health insurance, or course, we would shop around and purchase perhaps major medical with 80% coverage with an high deductable.
Insurance companies will have to compete for business instead of having a monopoly as they currently do.
You mentioned that doctors are in favor of the single payers system, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good thing for you and me. Will it mean less paperwork for the doctors, I’m sure it will. However I can only see a scenario where they negotiate a price with the body that is running the single payer system instead of the insurance companies.
Finally, in the single payer system who decides what will be covered and what isn’t? Several years after being tested, my cholesterol was 250 and my doctor wanted to put me on Lipitor. I wanted to check out what other options were available; I read everything on the subject I could find. I made some changes to my diet, take fish oil and red yeast and my cholesterol is down to 180. Would I be covered under the single payer system? I would be under mine.
As for the uninsured, since we already pay for their medical care wouldn’t it be in everyone’s best interest to have the market bring the price of health care down? We can use a pool of money to pay for their medical services (somewhat like your single payer system,) that they can pay back later.
I will be on vaction for a week, so I will reply then if you have any comments.