Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Save *MY* Ride

The RTA is considering slashing routes and bumping up the price to ride the bus and Rapid. This is coming at a time when ridership is up for the fifth consecutive year.

There may seem to be a disconnect here -- until you look at RTA's budget. Only about a fifth of the public transit agency's revenue comes from rider fares.

Rising gas costs have hit RTA the same as those who switched to the bus to run away from them. At the same time, state funding has gone down for the system. They're begging for people who care to write/call/whine to their elected representatives on a special site.

As I learned during my month of going car-free, RTA is a good enough service to get an everyday Clevelander around as it is now. Will it be after the service changes?

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