The signs that have been appearing in SEPTA vehicles of late -- threatening the end of the world if the state government doesn't agree to give SEPTA more money already -- are taunting me. The next time I have control over the minds of state legislators from other counties, I'll be glad to exert my powerful influence. Right.
Meanwhile, ask anyone on the street, and they'll tell you not to worry. "SEPTA does this every year." "It always works out." "Sure, they say they're going to cut weekend service, reduce service to all routes, cut the Regional Rail lines that don't sell enough tickets. But they never really do all that."
So routes are scaled back gradually. The R8 line runs significantly less frequently than it did a year ago, especially on weekends. Anybody remember the SEPTA refund promise? If it's more than 15 minutes late, you get your money back. Well, they certainly didn't have the wherewithal to keep that up. So maybe everyone is right. SEPTA won't cut service quickly and dramatically. They'll do it slowly, torturously, limb by SEPTA-route limb.
It'll make the cab drivers happy. And whoever makes money from oil sales. (The vice president? The Saudis? Who cares? I know it's not me!) But it sure isn't better for the people who live in Philadelphia. For those of us who don't have cars. Or who don't like spending hours looking for parking spaces.
Presumably, the state won't just give SEPTA the money it needs because not everybody benefits. The Amish aren't using SEPTA. So why should they have to pay? Well, it's simple, really. Public transportation means less green space being paved over for roads, parking lots and driveways. It means less pollution. It encourages people to live a little closer together, creating tighter neighborhoods and less urban sprawl. It means less of the threat to plant and animal biodiversity, which in this continent is caused largely by a constantly increasing suburbia.
Frankly, I'm sick of subsidizing people's SUVs. I'm sick of the federal government spending my tax money on other people's roads, roads that wouldn't be necessary if more people took buses and trains. We should be expanding public transportation, not cutting it back.
If you look at most of the SEPTA maps posted at train stations throughout the region, they'll tell you that the route to Fox Chase still goes to Newtown, while promoting other transportation fossils. But sadly, the restoration of the Newtown route, which would make I-95 a happier place by giving thousands of people an alternative route of travel, is probably not going to happen because a few influential people in places like Bryn Athyn don't want a train going past their backyards.
Public transportation is a fixture of a civilized world, a world in which people are concerned with the welfare of others. Buses, trains and subways mean drunk people can get home without endangering us all by climbing into the driver's seat of their cars. They mean young people under driving age have a means of getting out of their neighborhood, of being more independent and of finding things to do that aren't completely dependent on alcohol and sex.
SEPTA's paratransit service, which takes people over a certain age around for free, means that those people (a) aren't endangering us by driving too slowly and running stop signs, and (b) can live at home when they might otherwise be spending Medicare dollars in a nursing home somewhere. The school district saves money when students use tokens to get to school instead of requiring yellow buses.
Give SEPTA some respect.
Sure there are things about it that suck. I have on many occasions had to wait hours for buses that didn't come, or drove past me for no apparent reason. I've been stuck in a ridiculous number of subway blackouts. But somehow, I don't think that these problems have anything to do with the state refusing to support SEPTA. No, I think the people who won't pay for SEPTA are too busy driving their Jaguars, wasting fuel on more cylinders than they really need and having hit-and-run accidents.
There's a sticker on the steps to the Van Pelt Library. It has the SEPTA logo, and then it says "Walk." I get angry every time I see the sticker. Is it really SEPTA's fault that it doesn't get the money it needs from the legislature?
So right, next time I want to head home, I'll just walk. The rest of Pennsylvania can just drive their cars into a world of increasingly polluted water, worsening air quality and increased ugliness. And instead of protesting them, I'll protest SEPTA's slightly deficient service? Hell no.
I am no martyr. I don't want to carry the rest of the world's pollution in my lungs or in my Nalgene bottle.
But at the very least, if you don't want to give up your car, don't mess with my SEPTA.
Danielle Nagelberg is a junior International Relations major from Philadelphia. Schuylkill Punch appears on Tuesdays.
