What do you think? (about free transit, for seniors)

(When I was a child, the General Manager of WJBK-TV Channel 2, a CBS affiliate in Detroit, used to do on-air editorials, ending them with the question "What do you think?," and his name stated very forcefully, "I'm Bob McBride.")

DC1974/Inaudible Nonsense sends us a story from the Chicago Tribune, "Daley critical of governor's late change: Demand of free rides for seniors could derail deal," about the process to increase sales taxes in Illinois to fund transit. The Governor has stated he will support the increase only if seniors can ride transit for free. From the article:

The General Assembly forged the funding deal -- which includes sales tax hikes in Cook County and the five collar counties and an increase in Chicago's real estate transfer tax -- after seven months of political wrangling dominated by Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan.

[Governor] Blagojevich preferred an alternative bill that did not raise taxes to address transit issues, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said Saturday. She added, "In the spirit of compromise, the governor looked for a way to help improve a bill that he didn't support" while protecting seniors, many of whom are on fixed incomes, from the sting of a sales-tax increase.

Now this raises those thorny questions of equity.

I don't advocate one way or the other for free transit. It's a big issue on the newmobility e-list, but I think we are so far from having the political and community support for this that it just isn't worth much of my time pondering.

But the real question becomes if you are going to provide free transit to some groups and not others:

1. What is the most equitable segment to subsidize and why?
2. Is it about reducing the number of cars on the roads--reducing congestion?
3. Or producing more total riders?
4. Especially amongst people of lesser means, whose mobility can be enhanced through free or reduced price transit?

These are the questions that should be asked, at a minimum, when free transit proposals are bandied about.

Also see this column by Eric Zorn from the Tribune, "The governor's bitter 'lemonade.'" From the article:

1. Senior citizens don't particularly need free rides. ...
2. Other demographic groups need free rides more than seniors do. Students. People who are eligible for food stamps. The disabled. In the chart above, we see that local households headed by females are twice as likely to be in poverty than senior households) The list goes on. Why not all these people instead or also? Hmm, perhaps because they don't vote in the numbers that seniors vote.
3. It has not been vetted by the democratic process. ...

This poll from the Chicago Tribune shows lack of support for the idea. There were almost 9,000 respondents to the poll when I downloaded the graphic.