Why Aren't Buses Free?

WHY AREN’T BUSES FREE?
by Kirsten Anderberg

As I sat on a bus today, inching along in traffic, it became clear to me that all buses should be free. People who ride buses are providing a public service. To charge money to ride the bus is insane. Bus riders are REDUCING TRAFFIC CONGESTION for the one person per car overload on our streets and freeways. Bus riders ARE REDUCING POLLUTION. Bus riders are using considerably LESS GAS, and many buses are run on electricity, not Middle Eastern oil. According to statistics, 3% of the population rides buses. A way to increase the number would be to make buses FREE.

I propose a tax be added to auto licensing fees, car sales taxes, etc. to subsidize the bus systems. If cars insist on clogging the roads to a point where the traffic is impenetrable, the sky is hazy, and the gas is priced sky-high, then they need to be willing to PAY anyone willing to ride a bus. So they can continue to clog streets and guzzle gas, sitting in their cars alone. It is time to make the people driving cars, pay outright, for the traffic-reducing, pollution-reducing, gas-conserving buses, not the bus riders.