

They view the rider-or potential rider-as an afterthought. On the former point, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has a janitor who earned $270,000 in total compensation in a year. The transit systems we're supposed to hop aboard ultimately operate as jobs programs for government workers and schemes that battle climate change. Just check out the trendy "road diets" that eliminate vital traffic lanes in favor of bike lanes.

Instead of improving the roads that most of us rely upon and building quality transit for those who depend upon it, the state is devoted to a policy of planned congestion that seeks to make us so miserable we abandon the cars that we rely upon. If you peruse California's transportation documents, you'll find little focus on the nuts-and-bolts of transportation. Per-capita transit use plateaued in 1970. Transit's problems predate the pandemic, by the way. As a result, fewer people will use the service and that will lead to more cutbacks and higher fares. Because of less revenue, the agencies will reduce and charge more for their already shoddy service. "Without the state stepping in," transit agencies "say they may have to cut service or increase fares," according to a CalMatters report. The Southern California Association of Governments found that the region's "median" resident made zero transit trips in a year-and that transit ridership is concentrated in a fraction of the area's census tracts. State planners have been dumping record amounts of money into transit for years in the hopes that Californians will abandon their cars, but to no avail. Transit's problems have little to do with inadequate subsidies, so perhaps this challenge will force policymakers to rethink the fundamental problem: Our transit systems are so unpleasant that people don't want to use them. With the state government now staring down a $25-billion deficit, there's no extra general-fund cash to prop up struggling systems. Most agencies are facing fiscal calamity and, predictably, state lawmakers are seeking to infuse them with additional cash now that federal pandemic-related subsidies are subsiding. They have only rebounded to 60 percent after the end of the shutdown.

California's public-transit systems are facing a crisis, as already-declining ridership levels fell another 80 percent in the midst of COVID-19.
