I think this Observer piece does a fairly good job of showing how light rail is nothing more than an expensive means for rich people to travel. When the trolley is at least 9 times more expensive than really nice buses, its not worth it to me to use my tax dollars convince "Ruth" to take public transportation. Just check out this rich, white welfare queen:
Ruth Henry, 45, is a white Democrat and a transplant from the Washington area."I am never going to get on a bus in my entire life, but I used trains every day when I lived in Baltimore and Washington," said Henry, who works at an investment firm in University City. "I am totally on board for using tax dollars to build trains."
The DC area is tremendously dense and populous, though, sweetheart. It might be somewhat cost-effective there. But in Charlotte? If you factored out all the subsidies and charged her full cost, not even Ruth would be able to afford to travel on CLT’s light rail. Such a horrible waste of resources in the name of "world-class city" aspirations is shameful. And we shouldn’t be subsidizing rich people to travel with rolling baubles just because they’re too good to get on a *%#@ bus. -Max Borders
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