Should The Government Use Public Transit?

Everybody has an idea about what's "waste" in the government, and everybody has an idea for how to cut the budget. Here's one reader comment:

It seems a shame that the city cuts 25% of staff when other ways to save the jobs and save even more money may be out there. For example, if the city were to cut all code enforcement personal use of city  vehicles and issue bus passes in conjunction with a bicycle the job could still be done. This would save money and reap many benefits, for example:

1. No expensive fleet to maintain.
2. No insurance on the fleet.
3. Less C02 emissions.
4. Improved health for personal from all the exercise making for less in medical costs and lost days at work.
5. Enforcement personnel would get to really know the neighborhoods they service.
6. Our excellent public transportation system would get some use.

This is just one example of how the city could cut costs while keeping personal. I am sure if our elected leaders would start thinking outside the box they could come up with many more. -- Jim, St. Petersburg

Dear Jim: Thanks for the e-mail. You know, for public workers whose job did not involve lugging equipment around the city, I could see something like this. It would be brutal to ride bicycles in the summer, but -- using the bus system? Interesting.

I could hear the city trying to say that it would be too "inefficient" to ride buses to get around -- but that would be a heck of a thing to admit, since we expect the PUBLIC to use that same bus system...

Comments

[Gene Smith]

Letter carriers ride bicycles all over downtown all year long. Ask them.

[Jennifer W]

Inefficient use of time on the clock...

Seems to me I've heard many many many stories of city employees getting their to-do list for the day and then planning their travels so they go to point A first in the south side of the city, then point C next up around the north end somewhere, stop for lunch, then go back to point B which is south of Central Ave again, and so on so that they make it back to clock out at the end of the day without seeming to have had any down time. Windshield time I think they call it.

They're already being inefficient, so the bus system wouldn't change anything in that regard. Maybe we should have a private investigator tail some of these folks to prove my point, oh wait someone already did that and I recall that he batted 1000.

[David Mathews]

Florida needs to invest in a public transportation system for its entire population. The automotive age is nearing its end.

As if to illustrate exactly how much Nature disapproves of the American obese hyperconsumer lifestyle, there are two storms which threaten America's oil industry:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

If a major hurricane demolishes Galveston you can pretty much kiss your American lifestyle goodbye. Imagine for a moment how $5 a gallon gasoline might impact your lifestyle.

***

Americans think that they are entitled to this prodigal lifestyle. 5% of the world's population consuming 25% of the world's resources and treating the entire planet like America's own special sewer as we release 25% of the world's pollution.

Needless to say, imbalances of this sort are unsustainable. At some point in the near future the American people will discover that 5% of the world's population will only be able to consume 5% of the world's resources.

Would you like to imagine how different the United States will look under those circumstances? You don't need to imagine. Just wait.

***

I was in downtown St. Petersburg yesterday appreciating the beauty of the clouds and the rain. Walking in a heavy downpour enhances the entire experience. The water is especially lovely when the raindrops fall heavily upon the surface.

What a beautiful world we inhabit. Too bad that humans destroy every beautiful thing.

I was at Weeden island today walking on the boardwalk. The water is alive, the earth is alive, and the air is alive. Bugs, birds, mangroves ... this is how Florida is supposed to look.

Florida is such a beautiful place. Why have the Floridians allowed the developers and industry to destroy the beauty for the sake of squandered profits and dead paper?

At Weedon island there is a sign with a tragic message: "Tampa bays waters were clean enough to harvest oysters". Haven't we polluted and poisoned our own environment?

Such an act seemed profitable at the time and it appears trivial now. But a day will come when Floridians discover that trucks have stopped delivering food to the grocery stores and restaurants. These Floridians will have to rely upon their own local environment to survive.

They will discover that they cannot because our generation destroyed Nature for profits and pleasure and status and the feeling of power which is derived from destroying beautiful things.

We are not so far away from the empty-shelves phase of American history. Our civilization is dying. Our nation is insolvent. Our infrastructure is eroding away. Our resources are becoming depleted.

And these are still the good days. When the bad days come you will miss these days.

[David Mathews]

Hello Everyone,

For those who are unfamiliar with reality:

David M. Walker, the Comptroller General of the United States, is extremely worried about America's future.

To describe his worry, he uses terminology such as "Fall of Rome", "Argentina's hyperinflation" and "the best looking horse at a glue factory". In other words: America's future is bleak.

Here is a GAO report describing the problem:

"Transforming Government to Meet the Demands of the 21st Century"

http://www.gao.gov/cghome/d071188cg.pdf

David Walker's 60 Minutes interview:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7461407498377956300

"The Nation's Growing Fiscal Imbalance: Perspectives and Issues with David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States"

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=3870288672934020126

***

Incidentally, David M. Walker's warnings are expressed within the context of the assumption that America's economy will continue to grow between now and 2040.

David Walker doesn't factor in the impacts of Peak Oil, the Housing Bubble, Perpetual Resource Wars or Climate Change into the equation.

If he had done so, he would talk so much about Rome and Argentina and instead speak about Armageddon and Apocalypse and the End of Civilization.

The future ain't pretty. Keep that in mind next time you feel the urge to buy some ready-for-the-landfill consumer trash at the mall.

Any government official that tells us that low-level jobs and essential services will be cut because we demand fiscal responsibility… should be thrown out of office on their well-fed a##es.

Cut every unessential high-paying management job and pork project that has been added to the respective budgets after 2003… problem solved… and I’ll bet we save even more money with no change in services or loss of worker-to-public jobs.

[csbrudy]

Every government bike on a bus is going to take up space some poor schmuck needs in order to get to his crappy job. Why should we make government any greater a burden on the private sector than it already is? A better idea is to cut 20% of the pay of every single one of the 55 City of St. Petersburg employees who earn salaries of six figures.
Reducing windshield time should be easy with a competent dispatcher, who could be paid for proven efficiency.

[csbrudy]

Every government bike on a bus is going to take up space some poor schmuck needs in order to get to his crappy job. Why should we make government any greater a burden on the private sector than it already is? A better idea is to cut 20% of the pay of every single one of the 55 City of St. Petersburg employees who earn salaries of six figures.
Reducing windshield time should be easy with a competent dispatcher, who could be paid for proven efficiency.

[Sue]

Code enforcement needs to focus on real issues, not the 81 year old long time resident with a cracked asphalt driveway apron. They need to have their city paid vehicles taken from them and drive their own vehicles like most state employees are forced to do. I agree make all the managers take cuts for a change why is it that the peons always pay and the services that should be cut the most...like code investigators...well that just never seems to happen...could it be because these people are used to generate fines for the city by finding problems where none truly exist and since their word is law and you have no recourse when you have a wild card with no ethics or supervision on your hands the citizen can do nothing about it. Just try talking to Todd Yost sometime, he doesn't talk to citizens just hides in his office and convinces himself that they do nothing wrong because he knows the people aggrieved the most can't afford the legal process to do something about his ridiculous self and his ridiculous department.