Philadelphia PA - A report on the phillyburbs.com site tells of a study done by The Economy League which seeks to show how massive service cuts by SEPTA will effect the economy and traffic in the greater Philadelphia area. While I am somewhat dubious of the "worst case" scenario painted by the study and news report, it does show how transit is intertwined with the regional economy.
The real effect will be on jobs. Without an effective transit system, major employers will not come into the area. Also, some existing employers will pull out due to not being able to get people into work.
Traffic will increase, property values will drop and SEPTA will go into a death spiral of increased fares, lower ridership and less service in addition to the effect on jobs.
Too often, the general public and the politicians fail to understand the important link of public transit on the area economy until it's too late. Even employers are often dense when it comes to the link.
Transit is important to the regional economy and needs to be funded properly. Cutting service because politicians won't allow it to be funded properly effects much more than a small segment of the population that is dependent on the system.
As the Economy League study shows, public transit effects many more things than most people believe. Public transit is perhaps one of the top 5 items to effect the regional economy. It is tightly interwoven into the economy and to decimate the a transit system due to improper funding will only result in cutting ones own throat. In Pennsylvania's case, the politicians are cutting their own throat by ignoring the transit funding crisis. When companies pull out of the cities and even the state for greener pastures, the politicians will be left with failing cities that will hurt the state in the long term.
While the importance of public transit does not give a green light to wasteful spending by transit systems, *cough* PAT *cough*, transit systems need to be properly funded with a reliable source of revenue. Without proper funding, the doomsday scenarios presented by this study and various transit systems will happen.
The real effect will be on jobs. Without an effective transit system, major employers will not come into the area. Also, some existing employers will pull out due to not being able to get people into work.
Traffic will increase, property values will drop and SEPTA will go into a death spiral of increased fares, lower ridership and less service in addition to the effect on jobs.
Too often, the general public and the politicians fail to understand the important link of public transit on the area economy until it's too late. Even employers are often dense when it comes to the link.
Transit is important to the regional economy and needs to be funded properly. Cutting service because politicians won't allow it to be funded properly effects much more than a small segment of the population that is dependent on the system.
As the Economy League study shows, public transit effects many more things than most people believe. Public transit is perhaps one of the top 5 items to effect the regional economy. It is tightly interwoven into the economy and to decimate the a transit system due to improper funding will only result in cutting ones own throat. In Pennsylvania's case, the politicians are cutting their own throat by ignoring the transit funding crisis. When companies pull out of the cities and even the state for greener pastures, the politicians will be left with failing cities that will hurt the state in the long term.
While the importance of public transit does not give a green light to wasteful spending by transit systems, *cough* PAT *cough*, transit systems need to be properly funded with a reliable source of revenue. Without proper funding, the doomsday scenarios presented by this study and various transit systems will happen.
1 comment:
Hear hear! Well said.
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