However. I am a bit disturbed by the rhetoric and language I’m hearing from my side here. Let’s keep it civil folks, OK? We’re not the Kossacks, let’s act like the adults we are. Please?

Just what we need, another liberal keyboard worrior.

Something tells me you would be in tears in minutes if you had to actually back those words up.

My answers are, fire the all of the unions, and stop spending money on worthless socialist bullshit.

What’s hard to figure out about that… oh… never mind, you’re another worthless, ignorant liberal.

Why don’t you offer some answers instead of complaining like a bitch. Take it like a man or get the fuck out of this country you piece of shit.

You cowardice pussy -

Money from the gas tax can NOT be wasted on other projects. Why? Because its in the state constitution that all money from the gas tax must go to roads, nothing else. No LRT, no buses, no public transit. Only for roads.

As for LRT, per square foot yes it can carry more people per hour. But, there is also a point of diminishing return. Put in too many stops, the time advantage quickly decreases. Put in too few stops, ridership suffers. Also, depending on if it pre-empts traffic is also an important factor. The Hiawatha line through downtown is slow as it has to wait for the lights just like the cars and buses. After the Metrodome station, it is great until it hits Bloomington at which point the turns, lights, and stations make it slow.

As for buses, they use roads that are not figured into the cost of operating the buses. Since the buses do not pay taxes, they do not contribute to the maintenance of the roads and bridges, but they sure use them.

While I am a user of transit, it is still not the most efficient means of transportation. It is great for people needing to go from Point A to Point B where both points generate enough ridership to warrant the frequent trips, but if you are not near those points, transit does not help in any shape or form. For instance, my friend estimated it took him about 2.5 hours to get from Arden Hills to Plymouth. Why, because first he had to take a bus to Roseville, then transfer in Downtown Minneapolis, take a bus out to Minnetonka, to then transfer to a bus to Plymouth. With this he still had to walk a ways to get to and from the buses. The same trip in a car during rush hour, 45 minutes at the worst.

You know what I think, I think your mother should have held her water and drowned you.

It’s been stated here a couple of times that you are just too stupid to be a real poster. Just in case you aren’t a “bit”, the gas tax would be one of the only taxes that affect you since it’s obvious that you have to be in the lowest 10% of wage earners and pay no income taxes. I would think you would want to hold onto the little you have and avoid a tax that you actually have to pay. This would be a very regressive tax and would affect the people who can afford it the least, like yourself.

On another note, instead of parroting liberal talking points, you throw out a lefty buzz words here and there. It’s like you have tourettes or something and it’s uncontrollable. If you are indeed real. I almost feel embarrassed for you.

Please stop preaching to us about how we all need to raise the gas tax. Deliver a safe bridge at Stillwater. It has been caught for twenty years in red tape. I like bike trails too, but the bridge has killed three people in the last year. Your buddies at the Sierra Club, who are suing you again to keep it from being built, need to go away. Please do something.

http://www.grizzlygroundswell.com

When the bastards go on strike, traffic congestion decreases. Mass Transit is a worthless, broken experiment.

Unions do nothing good for anyone in this day and age. They destroy businesses, drive costs up and deliver no benefits to anyone. There’s a reason why union membership is down to 11 percent of the workforce. And there’s a reason why 65 percent of them are DFL cronies working in for the government. Unions are shit.

And MNbluestatebitch, fuck you. You and your lying coward, socialist, anti-American buddies should leave the damn country if you don’t like freedom and liberty. cow.

“Moreover, even light rail carries far more people per square foot of rail than do highways per square foot of road (all per hour) at any time of the day.”

“Obviously this can only hold true in areas where light rail or bus (or whatever mode of transit) is used at a capacity that removes more drivers from the road than would use another lane of highway.”

Don’t the two sentences above contradict each other?

“The Hiawatha line …[running at full capacity] … directly (it’s been measured by MNDoT) relieves traffic from 35W”

Please direct us to the MNDOT study that most persuaded you of this.

‘Once you have a union infestation there is usually no option but to “burn the field” and start again from scratch.’

Yep, who needs 8 hour days, minimum wages, child labor laws, and health and safety standards? We should all bow down before that blowhard in Utah who dispite mulitiple safety violations and the fact that his workforce is non-Union, he still blames the Union for causing the mine collapse. The lack thing we need is millionares with gigantic egos who don’t give a shit about their employees and many times even the product they produce, running our public infrastructure. It’s akin to giving Molnau a $100 million buy-out right now.

The bus system has been plagued for years by the Met Council’s mismanagement. They have cut routes and jacked up fares, so when you pull shit like that how do you expect the system to grow by leaps and bounds?

I know Matt probably didn’t have his driver’s license yet, but I am undoubtedly one of many
who blissfully enjoyed my commute during the
transit strike 3 and a half years ago, despite
the dire predictions of impending apocalypse, traffic was flowing so well the union boys had to back down, once it was becoming glaringly obvious what a boondoggle mass transit is in the Metro.

“So, because of light rail the 35W bridge was carrying significantly fewer cars a day than it would without rail; it’s simply a fact.”

Just because you wish something was true doesn’t
make it so…Just because your Daddy staked you
start-up $s for your blog doesn’t mean anyone should take you seriously.

Dead-on, 100% correct.

The main problem with any public operation, transit, health care, education, whatever, is that unions, like locusts on a corn field, quickly infest the workforce…usually with the help of the Democrats in government.

Once you have a union infestation there is usually no option but to “burn the field” and start again from scratch.

Shut that union fuck-around shop down.

First I point out the Matt is talking out of his ass (a-gain).

Then I prove it:

http://restraininorder.blogspot.com/2007/05/oh-hell-yeah-we-want-that.html

“Earlier this month, the mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton held a press conference with Gov. Ed Rendell about the state’s mass transit funding crisis.”

“It’s not just about the mismanaged money pit serving Philadelphia known as SEPTA. It’s about well-run but financially stressed local transit authorities like LANTA, which serves Lehigh and Northampton counties.”

“Before last year’s general election, there were rumors that Gov. Rendell would call for a higher gasoline tax to bail out SEPTA. Instead, the bipartisan Transportation
Funding and Reform Commission released a report after the election that detailed
a much bigger problem.”

“It’s a $1.7 billion annual funding shortfall — $965 million for roads and bridges, $760 million for mass transit.”

Chicago has lots of transit too:

“Huberman said the CTA would still have to divert $56.9 million in federal funds intended to pay for CTA maintenance, repairs and construction to pay everyday operating bills. The CTA is trying to close a $110 million budget gap.”

San Francisco Bay area LOVES it’s transit too:

“Dozens of angry commuters Thursday denounced BART’s proposal to raise fares and lay off station agents to cut a $51 million deficit, but some thought a plan to charge as much as $5 for parking was a good idea.”

Keep yapping, moonbat.

The main area where the anti-transit arguments fall apart, however, is where one looks at their overall affect on roads. As I’m sure all of you agree that everyone has to get to work somehow, I’m sure that we can subsequently agree that if transit is eliminated those individuals will be in cars on roads. Now, buses and (especially) rail are much higher density conduits; meaning that they can move many more people per square foot than can cars. Moreover, even light rail carries far more people per square foot of rail than do highways per square foot of road (all per hour) at any time of the day. So, light rail can relieve more traffic and congestion than can a whole new lane of highway.

Obviously this can only hold true in areas where light rail or bus (or whatever mode of transit) is used at a capacity that removes more drivers from the road than would use another lane of highway. So, high density urban areas are going to be the most prime suspects for light rail. Therefore, light rail clearly does not and can not replace roads in any significant manner; they can only supplement roads.

But if we’re talking about 35W, which, come on, we are, we’re talking about one of the most ideal supplement situations. The Hiawatha line runs at full capacity during rush hours (and most hours of the day) and this directly (it’s been measured by MNDoT) relieves traffic from 35W (and, obviously, other roads but 35W is the biggest benefactor). So, because of light rail the 35W bridge was carrying significantly fewer cars a day than it would without rail; it’s simply a fact. And, returning to my first point, it was doing so at a cost to the tax payer (over the life of the system) of much less per rider than an expansion of the artery would have cost.

Now, clearly, the light rail is not a repair mechanism. That is, no one in their right mind would argue that building the light rail was an effective way to deal with the disrepair of the bridge. But it is a more effective way to deal with a growing population and a cost effective way at that. So, my large point is that the light rail actually (relatively) frees up more transportation money than would building more lanes onto 35W. Which means that the most cost effective way to deal with these situations is to support the light rail while dedicating supplemental revenue to the repair and maintenance of the roads. Although the option you all are advocating is also an option, I suppose: scrap light rail, move the money to roads, and deal with massive congestion.

http://www.ecmpostreview.com/2007/August/8MaryHelenSwanson.html

He’s been involved with the county on several occassions to provide federal help, but after 10 years…nothing.

Maybe we should start labeling legislators they way they label bridges.

Oberstar – Functionally obsolete.

Just think of all the roads and bridges that could be built or repaired if we just stopped making any more light rail lines!!

Motorists should not have to ‘haul themselves up by their bootstraps’, get out of their cars, and repair the bridges themselves. That is the government’s job. And its better than them having to haul themselves up out of the Mississippi.

Regardless – it’s always the same. No matter what happens more taxpayer money will always fix the problem. What we never see is an accounting for the tax money already being collected. How much gasoline tax money is being directed toward road construction and maintenance? How much money is diverted for other transportation schemes, and how many citizens benefit, as compared to money spent on roads? And, why does any gasoline tax money need to go to the feds at all as opposed to the state? Keeping gasoline tax money in the respective states would be one less kitty for the elected financial whores in Washington to raid for pet projects.

Really, Oberstar has come through this as the most pompus, arrogant politician of all of them. The very next day he held a press conference blasting the Bush administration for underfunding infrastructure, somehow forgetting that it is Congress which appropriates money. He sits there on his high horse giving orders, but really, has no more connection to Minnesota anymore than Kevin Sorbo.