Comments on: On the RTA’s rate hikes, service cuts

By: TimFerris

TimFerris — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:41:16 +0000

Gloria tells me that the RTA people holding the hearing yesterday at the downtown library turned people away at the door and rescheduled another event to handle the overflow. This is a hot topic about an integral economic driver, a driver that nobody has yet tried to ramp up as a way of increasing productivity and commerce.

We need to fund an enhanced public transportation fully and first, and only then we can think about ODOT’s plans to finally give us the automobile-oriented things they should have back in 1958, when cars were bigger, gas was cheaper, and the population denser.

By: lmcshane

lmcshane — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:16:06 +0000

GZ says–”The time has come to ask the politicians in Washington and Columbus why they drastically cut their funding to RTA and to the other transit authorities in Ohio.” I couldn’t attend today’s meeting due to work, but my neighborhood network just informed me that over 600 people attended the meeting at the Cleveland Public Library downtown. Who’s the bad guy in RTA’s book? State funding…they are asking riders to petition the state reps for funding on par with other states, which receive 23 percent of their funding from state funds, while Ohio provides less than 3 percent to public transportation here.

By: D Balfour

D Balfour — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:49:23 +0000

We are willing to deal with a rate increase but on a smaller scale. This is really really crazy, and as it stands, I have to say along with other riders that I’ve talked to, that new HealthLine was not necessary.

By: D Balfour

D Balfour — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:46:14 +0000

This is not a good thing — has anyone taken into consideration that the gas prices for our automobiles have gone down? Now, why would you raise the prices to ride a bus, when we can drive now? Why would you cut service? If you do this with some rational planning, it will work, you have to listen to the public. We are the ones who stand out in the elements to wait for buses to take us to our jobs, doctors appointments, shopping, etc. Do you actually think that we would enjoy standing on any Cleveland City corner waiting more than 10 minutes for a bus? If you have to go up on the fares, do it gradually, you cannot just hit us with a full $2.00 rate increase. THAT WILL NOT WORK — we will get back in our cars first — then the ridership of RTA will drastically decline. You have an all day pass that is for Seniors/Disabled/Child, break it down into three different fares. Let each category have their own pricing..Seniors one price; Disabled one price and Child one price and then go up on the fares in intervals at 25 to 50 cents a year; like you did before. We cannot pay for your mistakes. The public did not ask for that new HealthLine, so we should not be put in a position to pay for it as drastically as being proposed. Not as many people are dependent on RTA these days as it use to be….people are buying cars

By: J Murray

J Murray — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:34:44 +0000

George Z., I am surprised that nothing in your post points to RTA providing a service to customers that they want at a price that enables RTA to operate. Why is your entire focus on what some distant government body needs to do with taxpayer money to subsidize a losing system? The time has come to ask the larger question of what it is about the way RTA is run that causes it to be such a money loser.

By: George Zeller

George Zeller — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:10:33 +0000

I am surprised that in all of these dozens of comments, absolutely nobody mentioned the real cause of the crisis at RTA. Over 60% of RTA’s revenues come from the 1% sales tax in Cuyahoga County. The sales tax revenues are down, cutting RTA’s revenues. Only a minority of the revenues come from fares. Meanwhile, Ohio provides the smallest subsidy for public transit in this region of the USA, and the state legislature has cut this subsidy substantially in recent years. So, RTA’s revenues are down, and their expenses are skyrocketing because they are paying obscene amounts of money for diesel fuel. The blame for that one is in Washington, not here in Cleveland. The remedy is for decent funding in Washington in Columbus, but that is not forthcoming. Another remedy would be improvement in the economy, so that the tax revenues increased instead of falling.

These causes are out of RTA’s control. But, they are in the control of our politicians in Washington DC and Columbus.

I dislike the cuts as much as anybody, but they are sound proactive management on the part of RTA. Would the other people commenting prefer bad management and bankruptcy at RTA?

The time has come to ask the politicians in Washington and Columbus why they drastically cut their funding to RTA and to the other transit authorities in Ohio.

George Zeller
GCRTA Citizens Advisory Board

By: lmcshane

lmcshane — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:47:11 +0000

EMERGENCY response. RTA needs to do what it takes to make service work for the people. See this report:
http://www.docuticker.com/?p=21783
BTW, Jerry–you said that drivers would be able to at the very least hand out some type of official RTA excuse to provide riders seriously inconvenienced by stoppages. Recently, I was stuck on a bus during rush hour –everyone on the bus was surely late for work. No paper explanation. Your riders have lives and they will avoid unreliable service, because their employers will fire them.

By: Tom Z(ych)

Tom Z(ych) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:04:33 +0000

You have your answers. You just don’t like them. So there.

By: J Murray

J Murray — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:55:38 +0000

Typical Tom Zych argument. Start with a political philosophy. Cherry pick supporting information. Claim that your debating opponent is doing what you are doing. Ignore inconvenient facts. Answer no questions.

By: Tom Z(ych)

Tom Z(ych) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:41:51 +0000

Complete revisionist history. There never has been the distinction between moving people and “commerce” that you pretend to rely on. The interstate highway system was sold as a national defense expenditure, to move military assets, not “commerce.” In reality it was designed to handle personal travel and freight movement via trucks – in all respects a mix of business and personal travel. Look at any of the plans for interstate highways and their feeder systems – commuter travel and personal use are central to the siting, scoping and maintenance designs. Same history with thr rails, although we have designed them with too much freight haulage in mind so that passenger rail always has been te stepchild while we have subsidized auto traffic. Your ideology continues to blind you.