Raising the bus fare
is just goofyRide TheBus on the same route for 25-plus years and you learn a thing or two. First, it's a lot cheaper than driving a car. Then there's the air-conditioning and having time to do a couple of crossword puzzles to sharpen your mind for the day to come.
Mostly, though, the big lesson is looking out the window when the traffic is stuck and counting the cars, each one a ton or more of fume-belching metal, usually carrying one person -- the driver.
You can't help looking around and seeing 50 people riding the bus with you and thinking about how much space 50 cars would occupy if those people weren't riding the bus.
Then along comes the City Council saying bus riders ought to be penalized for the good service they do by keeping all their cars off the road. Raising the bus fare by 25 cents, to $1.75, would add $1.7 million to the city's income, says Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi.
But what if that's the last straw, the one that puts a few hundred cars back on the road, gouging out potholes, polluting the atmosphere, snarling traffic even more and costing more in police pay, road repairs and traffic control?
By the way, drivers, some of you really understand this when you hold back and cheerfully let a bus into your lane. For that, we riders thank you. Think what it would be like to have to let 50 cars cut in front of you.
Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com
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