Kansas City Bus Service Blame Game Redux

A bit of follow-up and misdirection . . .

In reality, the KCATA is perfectly capable of providing bus service to the metro. The only problem is that elected officials use the service like a piggy bank for development schemes AND, for more than a decade, management is awarded as a political favor and not based on skill. 

Of course . . . We're obliged to offer an alternate and progressive theory that somehow finds a way to blame suburbanites and ur mom's SUV . . .

To move people smoothly around the Kansas City area would take more money — probably hundreds of millions of dollars more a year than taxpayers currently contribute to public transportation.

Rounding up that money would mean creating a transit plan that appeals to Northlanders, Wyandotte County residents, outlying suburbanites and downtown-dwellers alike — a plan that gets our balkanized jurisdictions to agree on a uniform funding strategy.  

“We can all talk about plans and procedures, but … it’s about investment in these systems,” said Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority. “Right now we have a fragmented approach to funding our regional transit system.”

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Public transportation success impeded by state line

Kansas City's public transportation system is stymied by the state line and the inability of the local transportation authority to levy taxes.