Government is and has always been a criminal enterprise. Indygo will build more infrastructure that can't/won't be maintained and spend the next 50 years (until it is demolished and rebuilt as some other boondoggle) begging for more funding to maintain it, indicating that the lack of ridership is due to low funding instead of low interest. The people that support this type of stuff are people who want to brag to their fellow government sycophants what cool stuff they have (they really want light rail) but they have convinced themselves that BRT is actually something meaningful (it is not).
“Nearly half a century ago [IndyGo] began resorting to government subsidies instead of right-sizing its operations as erstwhile bus riders became increasingly able to afford cars.”
That’s not what happened. In 1973 Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act reauthorizing funding the interstate highway system. But this time a contentious debate led to an amendment that directed spending to bus systems and other forms of public transit.
So what happened is not that the government decided to prop up a failing business. Rather, the duly elected representatives of the people agreed that public subsidy of transportation should include both highways *and* funding for programs like bus systems.
Government is and has always been a criminal enterprise. Indygo will build more infrastructure that can't/won't be maintained and spend the next 50 years (until it is demolished and rebuilt as some other boondoggle) begging for more funding to maintain it, indicating that the lack of ridership is due to low funding instead of low interest. The people that support this type of stuff are people who want to brag to their fellow government sycophants what cool stuff they have (they really want light rail) but they have convinced themselves that BRT is actually something meaningful (it is not).
“Nearly half a century ago [IndyGo] began resorting to government subsidies instead of right-sizing its operations as erstwhile bus riders became increasingly able to afford cars.”
That’s not what happened. In 1973 Congress passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act reauthorizing funding the interstate highway system. But this time a contentious debate led to an amendment that directed spending to bus systems and other forms of public transit.
So what happened is not that the government decided to prop up a failing business. Rather, the duly elected representatives of the people agreed that public subsidy of transportation should include both highways *and* funding for programs like bus systems.