I was angry when Mayor Dave recently proposed raising bus fares from $1.50 to $2 a ride. This made me so angry, I could barely articulate the reasons for my rage. This is Madison, WI not Chicago or NYC or any other major metropolitan area where such a fee may be reasonable. As salaries are being cut, jobs lost and a general recession/depression sets in, this is the worst time to raise bus fares. Particularly in my fair town, public transportation is used in disproportionate numbers by the less well-to-do. [As I’ve said before, I am one of the only people I know who regularly takes the bus. I do so because it is fairly convenient for me, parking is too expensive and I’m trying to do something environmentally sound from time to time. Additionally, given that I refuse to bike in winter, it just makes sense most of the year.] A fifty cent increase hurts everyone, but it is a particular smack in the face to those who make a paltry hourly wage. Four dollars to ride round-trip in Madison! Well, said the mayor, we must have this money otherwise we will be forced to cut services. The Transportation Committee on the Common Council voted down the increase, but the Council overrode that vote. Bugger! So, now, here we sit at $2 a ride, one of the highest rates in the country. Well, phew, we’re not cutting services. Right? Right! Not only are we not cutting services, we’re increasing services! And where? Between the UW campus and the UW hospital. Who rides this route the most often? Well, I’d have to guess that it’s mostly students. Students who get a free bus pass with their student fees. And, I was told by my alder, that the contract for those passes was not in negotiations at this time. So, basically, if all of this is true, the rest of us lowly busriders are just subsidizing a primarily UW student bus route. WTF?
And another thing that really, REALLY pisses me off are these &^%$@#* “mobile billboards” or whatever the f— they’re called. You know, the ones for, say, TQ Diamonds…A dumb truck drives around town with a big billboard-y type thing on its bed with a sign for a dumb store in town. Most often it is TQ Diamonds. I don’t know where this shop is, but I hate it. I called them once to tell them so, but it didn’t seem to have much of an impact. In this economy and in this environment, what kind of insensitive moron do you have to be to think that advertising on a gas-guzzling truck for your blood diamonds is anything but a morally condemnable idea? Dis-gusting.
Ok, sorry for the rant. I’ll be nothing but sunshine tomorrow.
