cut the fares, increase the service

RTA leaders favor 25-cent fare increase, no drastic service cuts - Cleveland Metro News – The Latest Breaking News, Photos and Stories from The Plain Dealer -- Time to talk about RTA board composition and board pay. Why are we having people who did not do so well in their prior incarnations, like Jane Campbell, continuing to have a hand in things so critical to our productivity around here? What do we pay this board, and should we consider cutting back on that? How many on the board are serving just to have a crack at qualifying for PERS, and should that perquisite be eliminated, too? We need to examine these cosy, and ultimately costly, insider relationships.

We need a better board with better connections and with a better track record of getting difficult jobs done to get us the money it takes to cut fares back to nothing, and soon, and increase services to make this the best transit system in the nation. The basics are already there. An attractive transit system is a prime economic driver. Period.

Mass transit can make the world go 'round, all day and all night. We must get out of this 9 to 5 mentality and see a bigger picture. Also, we must consider that it's easier to retrofit a transit system to operate off electricity than it is to do the same with all the automobiles. See Andy Grove's recent piece on energy on Portfolio.com