This is just the latest example of something that happens all the time. Thug kids attacking defenseless people, while terrified, disinterested or voyeuristic onlookers stand by and do nothing.
Does this define everybody who rides buses and trains? Of course not. But modern society has less public virtue than ever before. Investing tax dollars in projects which involve inducing or forcing people into “public” settings when that public virtue is nonexistent isn’t a good thing.
We already saw “teens” shut down a mall in Kentucky in the middle of the Christmas shopping season as a manifestation of that lack of public virtue. The same people are making buses and trains unsafe modes of travel.
We don’t oppose providing the service of transporting people to their work, errands or recreation when those people don’t have vehicles of their own. But in a 21st century society and economy, with 21st century technology available, it’s really not necessary to have a 19th century or early 20th century solution be the one taxpayers are forced to fund.
Given a choice between buses and trains and subsidized rideshare, who would opt for buses and trains?
Here in Louisiana we see the corrupt and inefficient CATS bus system in Baton Rouge continue to demonstrate itself to be a waste of public funds, when for what CATS spends East Baton Rouge Parish could easily afford subsidized rides on Uber or other rideshare competitors. And while that’s the case there continue to be people agitating for a taxpayer-funded passenger train between Baton Rouge and New Orleans when Megabus, a private company, is already providing that service at no cost to the taxpayer – for as low as $1 per ticket.
And nobody beats people to a pulp on a Megabus, or at least if it happened we can’t find video of it.
Advertisement
Advertisement