I'm a resident of Grays Harbor County and the Grays Harbor transit System is a real joke. The busses for the most part run virtually empty most of the time. They could of trimmed some of the bus service and taylored the bus route hours of service to when it was used the most. With this in mind I believe they could save the system and make it more effient but instead government continues to grow and never ever look at the bottom line which is transporting people more economically and efffiently. I think we need public transportation but not at the expense of the taxpayer, if it can sustain itself than it should be discontinued or go another direction. Gary Locke now has decided that since the State has a Surplus, (of your taxdollars) he says that we're not in such bad shape afterall.(election year politics)Tax and spend is the history of Government and that's why we need ore inititives like I-695 from the Citizens of this State to put control back in our hands and out of Big Government and The Big Corporations that Lobby for what they want. If any of you want to really wake up and smell the coffee, i invite you to pick up a copy of the Washington State Constitution and just see how the State is actually operating illegally. I t is very plain to see!!!! Let's all look forward to your new and upcoming intitative concerning transportation in the State of Washington!!!!! Ill be looking forward to volunteer my time and talents to get it on the ballot!!!!!

-- Craig C. Green (rainforestracing@techline.com), December 26, 1999

Answers

>I think we need public transportation >but not at the expense of the taxpayer, if it >can sustain itself than it should be discontinued >or go another direction.

Ah, but you forget: Our state's highways and roads do NOT sustain themselves, either. Our ridiculous network of roads and 10-lane freeways exist and are maintained only because of heavy taxes imposed by state and federal governments.

I say, if you kill taxes for public transporation, then you should also kill taxes for roadbuilding and maintenence. It's only fair.

-- shallora (shallora@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.

shallora you're back! Have you researched the Tacoma Link segment yet. We still have the shallora challenge thread going strong.

"Ah, but you forget: Our state's highways and roads do NOT sustain themselves, either. Our ridiculous network of roads and 10-lane freeways exist and are maintained only because of heavy taxes imposed by state and federal governments. " Ah but there's a difference. The roadways are maintained and built with taxes that come primarily from the users. Transit (which also depends upon the roads) is maintained and built by taxes that primarily come from the non- users. If we are going to have equity here, Transit should get no more of the transportation money than the passenger miles it provides, about 2%. Since it uses the roads, 2% of theis 2% should be paid by transit to the DOT for road use also. Eyman is allowing it to have up to 10% in his initiative. He's recommending more than it's got coming.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.

Shallora,

Is this another hit and run post? You never bothered to respond to Craig's challenge, why is that?

You posted: "Who is this Tim Eyman idiot, and since when is he such an expert on transportation planning? I don't ever recall seeing him in any of my traffic engineering or urban planning schools, nor have I ever seen him in any traffic-planning forum over the last 6 years" in a previous thread.

Now you make the statement: I say, if you kill taxes for public transporation, then you should also kill taxes for roadbuilding and maintenence. It's only fair.

Did you not learn anything about prioritizing in any of those Traffic Engineering or Urban Planning classes? Last I heard, WA DOT was planning not to fund roadbuilding, and scale way back on maintenance. Yet most Transit Agencies, (Pierce comes to mind), are cutting only 14-40%. Maybe Mr Eyman knows something YOU don't. Can you say less subsidy? Talk about idiots......

We killed all taxes for public transportation Shallora? Or only reduced some funding?

EMPTY BUSSES! YOU WANT TAXPAYERS TO CONTINUE FUNDING EMPTY BUSSES? Are you familiar with the area Craig C Green is from? Apparently not. Empty busses are not cost effective in rural areas, which much of Grays Harbor is. One of the problems with the MVET that you so sorely miss, is that it encouraged Transit to develop beyond what was reasonable. To my knowledge, the majority of transit agencies have scaled back to the most cost effective routes, which they should have done a long time ago. And many actually wanted to, but could not, because of a small but vocal groups who would take every step to prevent their routes, no matter how inefficient, from being cut.

Isn't it strange that in some communities, they have adapted quite well. For example, in Kitsap County, the Transit Board has asked Kitsap Transit to attempt to continue the same level of ACCESS service, with less funding. In fact, when forced to be financially responsible, Kitsap Transit will probably leave other Transit Agencies in the dust. I won't be the least suprised, if voter's give them a sales tax increase, for passenger only ferry service. They probably would operate it more efficiently.

In addition, many agencies in the Kitsap community, including church groups, have stepped in offering alternatives to transportation of elderly and disabled passengers. If not all communities care enough to overcome obstacles, why should the rest of us care?

Do you want to spend so much of your transportation dollars to fund Ferries, so people can live on the Olympic Peninsula and work in the Seattle area? You don't think we should expect them to pay more for the privledge?

As for our ridiculous network of roads, I think you lied about Traffic Engineering classes, didn't you?

-- Marsha (acorn_nut@hotmail.com), December 27, 1999.