CATS - Government Bureaucracy at its Worst

[CLT2010]

All the quotes in the paper were what got me

[Neo]

Just today, somebody walked up to me at my bus stop asking how often the bus ran, and what it cost... complaining about the price of gas, and what it cost to maintain his pickup truck.

I can add another person to the list on this accord. One of my wife's best friends now takes the bus to work. She rides alone, is young and white, and on top of that is very much pregnant. I do not believe any accounts that busses are for the poor or minorities for a minute for this reason. She has said she feels completely safe taking the bus and it has saved her both time and money. She still has her car of course, but it is a huge step to begin taking the bus in lieu of private transportation. From what she has said it is such great service that she doesn't plan to switch back to driving to work again and it is truly great to hear those words from someone like her.

I personally believe that LYNX may start out with low ridership numbers but I truly believe those numbers will increase tremendously before a year has elapsed. The federal ridership numbers IMO are only good for obtaining the money to begin with and show nothing in regards to actual ridership. There is no study in this universe that can predict ridership on anything because there are so many factors in play. Gas prices, economy, etc. all play a part of ridership numbers and I can't help but believe that we have even more on our side now (high gas prices for example) than what we had back when the study was done.

[tarheel]

I live in Dilworth and I take the bus everyday, to and from work. Not only does it save me money on gas, but I don't have to pay for parking, and I don't have to drive my car hardly ever during the week. The route I ride is a great route, and is mostly full when I'm on, which, admittedly is during rush hour, but it shows that even citizens in Dilworth are willing to support and use public transportation. Charlotte needs public transportation to continue growing, and especially to support the growth within center city that everyone is expecting/desiring.

I, personally would prefer the sales tax over increasing property tax, since not only Mecklenburg residents use the transit system. I also find it very backhanded the way that the "vote collectors" targeted certain areas, and likely didn't explain the true reason for collecting signatures. I understand that citizens have a right to question where our tax dollars go, but preying on people who likely use the services they are being asked to cut funding to is reprehensible. I hope that the majority of the voting Mecklenburg citizens understand the importance of transit before they vote to take away the tax.

[Lady Celeste]

Washington Metro carries 800,000- plus people a day. NYC, Chicago, Philly, and Boston all carry more.

[sax184]

All the systems you listed above are drastically larger than the rail lines of MARTA. Am I correct in the assertion. If they are not, can you please provide a link which will show mileage for each system. I stand by my initial statement that MARTA (rail or buses) only cover Fulton and DeKalb counties. I know from reading that the Washington Metro is larger in terms of rail miles. The Metro per it's website has 106.3 miles of rail. It serves (directly) 3.5 million people within a 1500 square mile radius. MARTA has a whopping 48. It serves 1.6 million (the combined populations of Fulton and DeKalb counties) people within a 897 square mile radius. Considering that northern and southern Fulton county as well as far eastern DeKalb counties are not served by rail, 250,000 people is alot. Per the Metro's website, in year 2006 they handled roughly 206 million trips a year. That equates to 564,000 trips a day. MARTA looks on par to me.

[Neo]

Please keep the thread on topic according to the original post as this has very little to do with the system here in Charlotte and everything to do with that of Atlanta and DC. You are welcome to start a new topic on Atlanta's system and how it compares with other cities however in the Atlanta forum or general transit forum.

[sax184]

Please keep the thread on topic according to the original post as this has very little to do with the system here in Charlotte and everything to do with that of Atlanta and DC. You are welcome to start a new topic on Atlanta's system and how it compares with other cities however in the Atlanta forum or general transit forum.

[ChiefJoJo]

monsoon

"CATS just put out a new high cost glossy brochure detailing their plans for mass transit. Note there is no mention of the standard bus system and I will point out why that is important later. CATS currently receives more than $72 million/year from the mass transit tax and that amount continues tor rise since it is a sales tax.

In this brochure, they list all of the nice plans for passenger trains in the county but then in the small print we have the following dates for implementation:

• South Light Rail - Fall 2007 <--- They still can't give a date for this even though its been under construction for years.

• North Commuter Rail, one way service - 2012

• University Light Rail - 2013

• Center City Street Car to Rosa Parks - 2018

• North Commuter Rail, two way service - 2019

• Center City Street Car to Plaza Midwood/Eastland - 2023

• Southeast BRT or LRT full completion - 2026

• West Streetcar - 2034"

  That the transit tax increases in value is good because it has to fight inflation and combat rising construction cost increases, which incidentally have recently outpaced the tax growth rates (less spending power). The 2030 Plan is the best estimate on implementation based on projected revenues and costs... it is *not* a promised date of completion, as many have alleged in refering to the previous 2025 Plan.

  transitman

  "The bottom line is this- if you want good transit in Charlotte, you need to keep the tax. If you don't keep the tax, this plan is toast and you can be sure getting the money back to do anything right will be very, very, hard. The city will easily lose another 10 years on all those dates, and inflation of the costs of materials will compound the effect and probably sap another 5 years off the dates, if anything ever gets built again.

  Vote for keeping the transit tax. You can be sure the MTC will be pushing better oversight in light of the tax repeal movement, even if they win."

  If the tax is repealed, you will likely see the above happen plus:

  • Property taxes will go up to fund bus service beyond '98 levels

  • Property taxes will have to go up in order to fund maintainance the LRT--even transit haters will have to live with it, and continue to fund it

  • Charlotte's poor air quality will get worse and it's plans for dealing with it will be severely hampered with no significant transit system funding

  • Charlotte's federal funds (including road money) will be *frozen* due to the worsening AQ and no comprehensive plans to deal with it

  • If the EPA does not freeze the federal dollars, it's very likely that environmental watchdog groups would sue to enforce the Clean Air Act as they did in Atlanta several years ago

  monsoon

  "Actually CATS spent great deals of money to do modeling, with Parsons I believe, to come up with those numbers. They were not handed out by Federal government. If the numbers are bogus then CATS has wasted a lot of time and tax money to produce something that doesn't serve anyone any good purpose. Until proven otherwise, I will criticize them on what they are publishing as their plans for transit."

  Let's see CATS is irresponsible because they waste local taxpayer dollars... they pursued federal funds to build the line so local dollars wouldn't have to shoulder the burden... so CATS is required to use the modeling rules that the feds (with $200M+ to help the local taxpayers fund the line) set up to get the money (that helps the local taxpayers)... you are provided with evidence from "peer" systems that the South LRT is competitive in cost and that federally mandated (you know, the ones that are helping the local taxpayers to the tune of over $200M) ridership predictions are very often lower than actual ridership, and you say that the fed-dictated ridership numbers are evidence that CATS is wasting money for no good reason? Please explain how your argument makes any sense at all.

  soccer1guy

  "Metro, I disagree with you on a couple points. First Accountability, CATS seems to be under a constant microscope. The local media and conservative politicians are constantly attacking CATS and investigating their finances. The papers, politicians and UNC-Charlotte have all investigated CATS in the past year."

  An important point that cannot be ignored. Roads get comparatively little attention, despite greater delays and cost overruns.

  Dubone made some good points and mentioned the oversight of CATS could be better and that the structure was too political... well, transportation has been and always will be political, so that the MTC funded the North line first wasn't surprising. I think it's a small price to pay for holding together a tenous political situation in Meck Co.

  If all of the above were to occur (set back 10 years, AQ problems, rising prop taxes) along with the spector of rising gas prices and potential problems with global warming, without the transit tax what hope would Charlotte have of dealing with these issues? Basically, repealing the transit tax would be a disaster for Charlotte's economic vitality, competitiveness, livability, etc.

  I want to hear someone who believes the repeal is a good idea come up with a better plan that will fix all of the above problems without funding transit or raising taxes... (good luck)

[cinco]

looks like pat mumford will be leading the initiative against the transit tax repeal. i think this is a good PR start to defeating this nonsense. pat is a republican - so, maybe he can reign in some fellow party members. i personally feel this issue is pretty non-partisan... with maybe a slight majority against the tax - in the conservative camp. either way, hopefully we can turn the tide around.

http://www.charlotte.com/109/story/153261.html