There’s more bad news on the way for those who depend on public transportation to get to and from work, school and other daily tasks. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) reports that almost 80 percent of U.S. transit agencies say they are planning to, or considering raising fares or cutting service in the near future.
Mass transit is already on the ropes and this will be another serious blow.
This is particularly bad news for a significant number of the 9.2 percent of Americans who are unemployed, and who simply can’t get to work because their ride has been scrapped.
The Tea Partiers in Washington have been celebrating that no tax increases were included in the recently passed debt deal. But, if Congress continues to do nothing about the transit crisis, they will be levying another very real new tax on transit-dependent citizens in the form of more fare increases. In fact, since the beginning of the current recession, more than 85 percent of transit systems across the U.S. have already cut service or raised fares.
Furthermore, many of these cash-strapped transit systems will continue to put off new equipment purchases and deferred maintenance, causing significant safety issues.
To throw even more fuel on the fire, a multi-year transportation reauthorization proposal by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair John Mica, R-FL would cut more than 30 percent in federal transportation funding, resulting in even more massive service cuts and dangerous traveling conditions for U.S. transit riders.
Americans want and deserve reliable and affordable public transportation. It is not the time for our nation to be cutting back even further on transit. Investment in public transportation is critical to helping our economy climb out of this deep recession.