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How to Alientate Your Record Ridership

Tampa, Florida is experiencing record ridership due to gas prices, according to Tampabays10.com.

Kathy Karalekas, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, welcomed the news:

I don’t think that we anticipated that gas prices would be the record high but, you know what, we’ll take the riders. We’ll take them however they’ll come.

I’m glad you’re eager to serve, but here’s an idea. If you want to keep your new ridership, increase your level of service.

Many factors would lead me to choose the bus, only one of which is rising gas prices. Others like convenience, proximity to service, and the safety and cleanliness of the system play into it. Right now, gas prices seem to trump the rest. But as we find out later in the article, HART will probably increase ticket prices since rising fuel prices affect the buses too. So even though your tax dollars already pay for the buses, now you’re going to absorb the fuel costs through increased fares. This is a great policy if HART wants to discourage people from riding mass transit.

How about getting rid of unnecessary pork and fully funding the costs of the buses? Why is that solution outside the realm of possibility?

Sadly as HART will probably find out – OPEC giveth; Thy foolish policies pusheth away.