The sad part is how much they are not getting for all these dollars. Figure with Portland around six percent of workers use the transit system. If your in the crowd making less than 75k then it goes up to eight percent.
Forty percent of the nations mass transit use occurs in NYC. Its even gone down everywhere but there. The cost per mile to install is staggering, but worse is that many systems are deferring maintenance and even worker pensions. Also while fees to ride are subsidized most don't understand that all maintenance has to be subsidized too. Throw in the silliness that is streetcars whose existence seems to only be to subsidize those who make them and we are just throwing money away
Forty percent of the nations mass transit use occurs in NYC. Its even gone down everywhere but there. The cost per mile to install is staggering, but worse is that many systems are deferring maintenance and even worker pensions. Also while fees to ride are subsidized most don't understand that all maintenance has to be subsidized too. Throw in the silliness that is streetcars whose existence seems to only be to subsidize those who make them and we are just throwing money away
If you want to know how many ride the government can tell you. Go to http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml, do an advanced search for B08519
The percentages aren't good