Why do things with the prefix 'public' have to always be so bad. I have yet to see one thing which is 'public' and yet is actually 'OK'. I'm not talking about great. I'm not talking about good even. Just average, mediocre, OK... But even that becomes a couple of notches too high.
To state an example... I'm not going to talk about public toilets because that's something which... well... is universally expected to be bad and because if I start on my experiences with this special category of public utility then this post will lose it's focus!
Being used some pretty bad public transport for all my life I was happy if not surprised to find clean, non-crowded buses here. It's actually quite convenient if you ask me. I had been told Chicago does rank among the better public transports in the US. I would agree but I have pretty low standards in this respect so I'm probably a bad judge!
Nevertheless it had me impressed but... that was till I came to know how badly managed it was! Yeah... I had almost forgotten about the invisible aspect of public transport. The Chicago metropolitan public transport is bleeding and very badly. It's cash strapped. Almost living the life of a parasite on the city's budget. They were going to cut down services and increase fares this month just to keep it going for the heck of it.
The issue was quite simple. There were not enough commuters to make it a sustainable, forget profitable, venture. So the very thing that had impressed me was some what of a problem for the transport authority. Here the problem was of not of plenty but of scanty. But instead of using the opportunity of increasing fuel prices, high parking charges, traffic congestion to leverage the public transport the authority was just sitting on it's back side waiting for the city council to bail them out.
They had played it pretty smart though. They had asked the city for additional funds (a few millions dollars) which was the issue being debated in the local council. And announcements had already been made about the services which had been chosen to be retained, quite clearly insufficient. Though the commuters are low to make the service sustainable, they do form a significant number and definitely was a very unwelcome move for them. The transport authority had avoided becoming the bad guys and if at all services were cut it would've been because they didn't get the funds!
And we all know how politicians are... The transport authority got the funds. No services were cut down. Even fares were not increased. The politicians even voted in favor of free rides for senior citizens! So we're again into the same mode till these allotted millions are finished. Without any action being taken to actually make a proactive effort to make something, which has the potential to be sustainable, work.
This also got me wondering how and why the public transport systems back home are bleeding? There is quite clearly no shortage of commuters. There's no expenditure whatsoever on maintenance. It really is puzzling when you come to think of it. I would even go as far as to say that it is pretty tough to make losses when you're in such a strong position!
But the answer to all these 'public' problems lies in the fact that these issues are public. It's easy not to be held accountable for anything when in reality everyone should be doing atleast something for it!
Cheers!
To state an example... I'm not going to talk about public toilets because that's something which... well... is universally expected to be bad and because if I start on my experiences with this special category of public utility then this post will lose it's focus!
Being used some pretty bad public transport for all my life I was happy if not surprised to find clean, non-crowded buses here. It's actually quite convenient if you ask me. I had been told Chicago does rank among the better public transports in the US. I would agree but I have pretty low standards in this respect so I'm probably a bad judge!
Nevertheless it had me impressed but... that was till I came to know how badly managed it was! Yeah... I had almost forgotten about the invisible aspect of public transport. The Chicago metropolitan public transport is bleeding and very badly. It's cash strapped. Almost living the life of a parasite on the city's budget. They were going to cut down services and increase fares this month just to keep it going for the heck of it.
The issue was quite simple. There were not enough commuters to make it a sustainable, forget profitable, venture. So the very thing that had impressed me was some what of a problem for the transport authority. Here the problem was of not of plenty but of scanty. But instead of using the opportunity of increasing fuel prices, high parking charges, traffic congestion to leverage the public transport the authority was just sitting on it's back side waiting for the city council to bail them out.
They had played it pretty smart though. They had asked the city for additional funds (a few millions dollars) which was the issue being debated in the local council. And announcements had already been made about the services which had been chosen to be retained, quite clearly insufficient. Though the commuters are low to make the service sustainable, they do form a significant number and definitely was a very unwelcome move for them. The transport authority had avoided becoming the bad guys and if at all services were cut it would've been because they didn't get the funds!
And we all know how politicians are... The transport authority got the funds. No services were cut down. Even fares were not increased. The politicians even voted in favor of free rides for senior citizens! So we're again into the same mode till these allotted millions are finished. Without any action being taken to actually make a proactive effort to make something, which has the potential to be sustainable, work.
This also got me wondering how and why the public transport systems back home are bleeding? There is quite clearly no shortage of commuters. There's no expenditure whatsoever on maintenance. It really is puzzling when you come to think of it. I would even go as far as to say that it is pretty tough to make losses when you're in such a strong position!
But the answer to all these 'public' problems lies in the fact that these issues are public. It's easy not to be held accountable for anything when in reality everyone should be doing atleast something for it!
Cheers!
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