Our town of Provo, Utah is a poster child for why the U.S.
government is 17.5 trillion dollars in debt.
The city is completing plans to receive $150 million in
federal money for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system—a 16 mile route that will
connect two universities, Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, the
downtown areas of Provo and nearby Orem, other local areas. The bus system will
require the construction of dedicated lanes to run the huge double busses with
the accordion folds in the middle every 8 minutes all day long, with 5 minute
intervals at peak hours.
The city has been up in arms over the proposed program, pro
and con, concerning the routes to be taken, but few raise the biggest
objection: why do it at all? We do not need busses with a dedicated lane and
accordion-fold doors that run every 8 minutes. Anyone living in Provo knows
those busses will travel empty most of the time. There isn’t that much human
traffic even at rush hour.
Peak traffic hours could be handled with extra busses, for
vast savings on the outlay. In addition, beautiful Provo could be spared the
years of construction, the confusion, and, of course, the cost—our share of the
matching funds.
We do not need a large scale project for a middle sized
town. Maybe we will grow into this down the road, but we don’t need it now.
Those who invest in the typical pipe-dream—that once we have the system, people
will leave their cars at home and take the bus—hasn’t worked out well in other
locations. There is no sensible reason to believe it will happen in Provo and
Orem.
Yet, because federal money is involved, the city pants for
the project. In our frenzy for the freebies, where is the logic? And where is
the federal government going to get that money? It will borrow it, because the
government is broke. Who will pay the costs when the federal money runs out, or
the government becomes bankrupt? Utah citizens.
This is nuts! We will take borrowed money from a fiscally
irresponsible, nearly bankrupt entity to create an overkill system that is
beyond our needs because it is “free”?
Rethink that, Provo!
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