Douglas Sussman, MTA Public Hearing Officer: "Thank you, Mr. Henderson. Next speaker, Mary Barber, followed by Marvin Holland."

Mary Barber: "Good morning. I'm here today actually representing many groups. And I'd like to go through the names of those groups and then read a brief statement. The groups today to present this joint statement are:

The Campaign for New York's Future
Citizen's Committee for New York City
Environmental Defense Fund
Clinton-Hell's Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety
General Contractor's Association of New York
The L.D.C. of West Bronx
Natural Resources Defense Council
New York City Apollo Alliance
New York League of Conservation Voters
New York State Laborers
Pratt Center for Community Development
Regional Plan Association
Straphangers Campaign
T.I.M.E. To Improve Municipal Efficiency
Transportation Alternatives
Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Urban Agenda, and
The Women's City Club of New York.

"Our buses, subways and rails are the life blood of this region. Vital to our economy, our environment and our quality of life, this transit network moves more than nine million workers, customers, tourists and students each workday. The MTA is in crisis, but clearly the budget being voted on today must not stand. If it does, the results threaten to propel our city and our region into an economic, social and environmental tailspin.

"Now is the time for leadership that recognizes the enormity of our problem and inspires us all to be part of the solution to this crisis. We applaud the Governor's Commission on MTA Financing for their recommendations, which continue a 30-year tradition of asking those who benefit, whether directly or indirectly, from our transit system, to contribute to the maintenance of this vital network.

"The Commission's recommendations are marked by a fundamental fairness. All riders, commuters, drivers, and businesses will contribute to the support of the region's transit system, including the repair and maintenance of bridges and roads. The recommendations eliminate the fundamental unfairness of sharply raising transit fares and some tolls, while allowing other drivers to not pay any tolls. The recommendations reduce the pressure to raise tolls even more at currently tolled bridges and tunnels. Motorists will take on the burden of maintaining bridges that they use, as part of the revenue from new tolls will be dedicated to bridge repair and maintenance.

Mr. Sussman: "Please summarize your comments."

Ms. Barber: "Yes.

"We, the organizations that stand here today, support these fundamentally fair recommendations presented by the commission. We acknowledge this is a difficult choice for elected officials, to implement these changes that will spread the burden of helping to fund our transit system to some who benefit from our region's transit network and are not accustomed to contributing. But we ask our leaders to consider the stark unfairness of placing a disproportionate burden on only some of the millions who benefit from our transit system, as well as the nightmare scenario of a transit network whose services and maintenance are drastically reduced due to a lack of support. Thank you."

[Applause.]

Mr. Sussman: "Thank you, Ms. Barber. Our next speaker is Marvin Holland. Marvin Holland. . . . "

The evidence suggests that it wasn't the poor, who were cracked down on in the early 1990s, who did so. It was everyone else. It was entire generations. Including not only those who refuse to accept the contribution of fares falling drastically relative to inflation (and MTA labor costs) to the problem, but also those who use their vehicles to occupy scarce street space without paying a dime.

The other day, a driver was complaining here about how it's "cheaper" to drive than take transit. I disagreed because I felt he wasn't taking the total costs of driving into consideration, yet... transit fares are still popularly equated with just "gas", and fare increases always drive riders away.

The decisions politicians make are sometimes bad. But the non-decisions they make, and the hidden deals they make, are far worse. The political ideal is a special deal to help the privleged few, followed by a non-decision with no footprints to screw everyone else which is "no one's fault."

THAT is Albany.

An excellent social commentary not just on the top-down style of government we have been subject to endure in the recent past, but the longer established institutional top-down structure of big media, which supposedly represents the people's interests, but in effect, only represents its own commercial and political ones. And the importance of blogs and other forms of new media as the real representatives of democratic, civic life.

So how do we get to the point where it is these interactive forums that lead the discussions on civic life?

Extend this decision-making logic to drivers and we could simply close all of the odd-numbered streets in Manhattan. After all, even-numbered streets are only two blocks apart, so nearby alternatives exist. The borough could cut its paving budget by 50%.

The MTA has been cutting routes "where nearby alternatives exist," including nearby and/or parallel bus routes and subway lines.

Imagine what would happen if the DOT said: "Due to budget constraints, we are decomissioning the Brooklyn Bridge. As an alternative, we urge all motorists who currently use the Brooklyn Bridge to use the Manhattan Bridge, which is less than a quarter mile away."

Subway lines move far more people than a few lanes of traffic, but when it comes to public outcry over infrastructure, you'd think the reverse was true.

However, after the session was over and cameras off we were chatting and he beamoned about how hard it is to drive around NYC.

Just confirmed my long running suspicion that these folks who report tv news allow their bias to seep into their reporting. Frankly, most times when there is a story of fare increases or draconian cuts to transit, I wonder to myself, "Does this reporter ever even ride a subway?"

The networks should realize they need to change their coverage. NO wonder why more and more people are flocking to blogs like Streetsblog (thank you!) for their news. As we all know newspapers and nightly newscasts are falling behind. Much like the Big Three Auto companies they are dinosaurs. They need to re-invent how they do things.

Can you imagine the popularity if just of one of the news stations just taking the current transit issue and making it a nightly in-depth story? They don't even know how much their ratings would soar.

(One caveat: I would exempt NY1 for the most part from these statements. They do a commendable job and their 9 PM show regularly tackles transportation issues.)

But shorten, limit, or otherwise shut down subway service and there's barely a whisper from the powers that be. It's especially troubling since these service cuts are in lower income neighborhoods.

This is an outrage.

Is there numbers of how many people use the roads compared to the subways (number of riders per day, number of vehicles per day?)?

You can be sure these people drive to work, judging from their congestion-pricing coverage and their incessant demonization of traffic enforcement officers.