LA Swift is the bus service, heretofore paid entirely by the federal
government and by small passenger assessments that vary between $4.40 and $5.00
a trip, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The idea was, after Hurricane
Katrina, to provide an opportunity for those displaced from the New Orleans
area to have access, perhaps even be employed, in the area while temporarily
housed in Baton Rouge or select points in between. The federal government put
up all the funds, presently about $2.3 million a year.
Over the years, naturally enough, the program began to mutate beyond
its original purpose and thereby expand. While a ridership survey showed the
majority of rides involved getting to and from work, nearly half were reported
as occurring for visitation purposes, and some for health care reasons. Only a
third did not have a private car to use for transport. It also promised some amenities
in traveling, such as ability to view televisions, wireless connectivity, and the
ability to transport bicycles. It grew into eight round-trips on weekdays, five
during weekends with more limited stops, serving over 12,000 riders a month and
thus promoting the following possibility.
Say you’re tired of going to both bars in Sorrento; on a Saturday after
closing them the night before you can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the
stop to slap down your sawbuck and hop the bus at 1:19 PM, get off at the main
library in New Orleans at 2:23 PM that gives you a solid three-and-a-half hours
to get smashed in time to stumble back to board again at 6:15 PM and you’re awakened
back in Sorrento at 7:35 PM with plenty of time to go out and revisit your
glory of the night before. Your tax dollars are at work here.
However, the federal government changed the rules beginning the state’s
next fiscal year which now would require that other governments cough up around
$750,000 annually to sustain it. Further, that cannot be gathered as part of the
fares. As a result, the state’s Department of Transportation and Development,
which oversees the program, pulled
the plug. Unless both the transportation agencies of the New Orleans and
Baton Rouge areas want to pony up, the service ends in fewer than three weeks.
While a number of special interests bemoan this development, if there’s
truly genuine need, there’s no reason they can’t make some kind of deal to come
up with the scratch. Better, ridership levels such as they are, this means the
current subsidy is about $16 a rider and actually much closer to $8 a ride since
almost all should be round-trips, meaning a private sector operator probably
could do the whole thing for $25 round trip.
And that’s what should happen if there’s real demand there. Ridership
will fall at a 150 percent higher rate, which could moot this possibility, but
the survey said about half of respondents would pay a higher (unspecified) rate
to use it. The state already contracts this out, so (as long as the Public
Service Commission quickly approves) a private operator seamlessly could pick
up service.
If that doesn’t happen, there’s no real loss. After seven years, if
displaced people haven’t moved back to New Orleans (perhaps 100,000 didn’t) and
still have jobs there, maybe it’s time they got one locally or moved back.
Otherwise, why are taxpayers subsidizing individuals who wish to live in one
place and work in another? Visitations can be done on their own dime as well.
And there are few to no health care cases that are so unusual that they could
not be serviced in both of these large metropolitan areas.
Your conclusions at the end are incorrect. You assume the people whole live in one locale and travel to another for work are doing so because of a desire to do so. First, you have no evidence to support such a claim. Second, it is just, or even MORE likely that the individuals in such a predicament cannot afford to move away from their current home OR that they have other work or school obligations that prevent them from moving. I have a friend who took the bus because she was working on her masters at LSU and had a LSU-ordained job at the NO Public Library. She had to work there for a certain type of experience.
ReplyDeleteYou also mention that a third of the riders own their own car, and you insinuate that they should take that car instead of riding the bus. Do you seriously think we need MORE cars running about in BR and NO traffic? Both places are horrendous during rush hours.
Last, you say that there is no health case 'so unusual' as to require treatment in NO. Guess where the ONLY VA hospital in the state is located? That's right, New Orleans. Have you any data on how many people use that bus to get to the VA hospital? Would you really deny our vets the medical care they are due?