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A Fantasy of a Sane Transit System, Part IV.

July 1, 2016 by Exangel

by Rustin Wright.

The money question.

There is a central part of all of this which I have not mentioned at all. A defining part. Funding.

The Daviesville Transit Citizens, in their research, discover a few things which shock them. And one is that fare collection is as much as a third of the cost of a transit system. And they found that in recent decades more and more people have brought up an interesting point. Drivers cost a large city billions to get their infrastructure. Frequently even including cheap or free parking downtown for residents, which can tie up as much as eight thousand dollars worth of real estate for one person to have one parking space. And school buses are large part of city budgets. And one drunk driving accident may cost fifty thousand dollars or more in city funds. While hundreds or even thousands of those would have been prevented if there had been safe, reliable, frequent service mass transit then and there.

So they made a decision. The fare on the Daviesville mass transit system would be…nothing. Riding is free. For anybody. A tax, which was fiercely unpopular in some quarters, was instituted on hotel rooms. Two dollars a day. Of which almost all would go to fund the estimated use of the system by visitors.

The classic argument against a no fee transit system is that this will encourage “excess” usage. After all, what if somebody were to just decide to ride the bus all day, back and forth, just because they have nothing better to do? But the same people who say that don’t ever seem to demand sanctions against people who aimlessly drive around a city all night when, say, recovering from a breakup. In fact, such behavior has long been considered romantic. Sexy.

Yes, when conventional systems have withdrawn fees ridership has not only increased but, in fact changed in character. When you’ve got an unlimited use pass taking the bus just two stops because there might be a rain shower or because those shopping bags are feeling a bit heavy suddenly look entirely reasonable.

Which, they realized, in fact was a form of accommodation to the disabled. And the simply fatigued.

Transit is a fundamental part of a city. Like streetlights, fire fighting, or schools. And as such, it shall be free.

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Summer 2016: I Want the World.

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In This Issue.

  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
  • Her.
  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
  • Dream Shapes.
  • Cannon Beach.
  • The Muse.
  • Spring.
  • The Greatness that was Greece.
  • 1966, NYC; nothing like it.
  • Sun Shower.
  • The Withering Weight of Being Perceived.
  • Broken Clock.
  • Confession.
  • Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse.
  • Sometimes you die, I mean that people do.
  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
  • Fragmentary musings on birds and bees.
  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
  • Broad Street.
  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
  • Swan Lake.
  • Long Division.
  • Singing against the muses.
  • Aphorisms from “What Remains to Be Said”.

In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

supergirls-take-1

In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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