**Table of Contents Contents 1ac – Mass Transit
Download 325.66 Kb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Gentrification Answers
- Oil Answers
Cap AnswersLack of public mass transit aggravates socio-economic inequalities Moulding, Georgetown journal on Poverty Law & Policy, 2005 "Fare or Unfair? The Importance of Mass Transit for America's Poor" http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/geojpovlp12&div=11&g_sent=1&collection=journals# J.D. candidate, Georgetown University Law Center The underdevelopment of public transportation in America has exacerbated our nation's economic and social inequalities. A decades-long trend of prioritizing automobile use at the expense of public transportation has undercut an important means of improving the lives of low-income Americans, especially in urban areas. While the consequences of high-way transit network for the environment and energy consumption have received attention, the economic impact on the poor is relatively overlooked. No public transport means poverty and deprivation mutually reinforce each other Timo Ohnmacht et al 2009 (Timo Ohnmacht, Hanja Maksim, Manfred Max Bergman), Ashgate Publishing Company, Mobilites and Inequatlities In Urban Areas social inequity is evident in terms of social deprivation that may occur both caused by lack of access to mobility and as a consequence of mobility-related degredation of living conditions (e.g. caused by air pollution noise emissions etc.). Many cities in Europe still have highly stressed neighbourhoods and traffic corridors, which also have a high concentration of population groups with a low rate of motorization or who are badly served by public transport. In such areas, the two categories of problem overlap: mobility (especially motorized transport) becomes a risk, contributing to the deterioration of living conditions; and the lack of mobility facilities prevents people from participating in society, limits access to education, the labour market etc. Poverty and deprivation structures are thus mutually reinforced, also from a socio spatial point of view. The plan decreases capitalism – decreases the existence of spatial divide. Henderson 2006 (Jason Henderson works at the Department of Geography and Human Environmental Studies at the San Francisco State University. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 30.2 June 2006 293–307. “Secessionist Automobility: Racism, Anti-Urbanism, and the Politics of Automobility in Atlanta, Georgia”.) First, the creation of GRTA, a creature of Atlanta’s corporate elites, tempered secessionist opposition to transit. Recall that Atlanta was the first metropolitan area in the US to have federal road funds suspended due to air pollution problems stemming from automobility. Eventually federal transportation funds were withheld, and Atlanta’s corporate elite established GRTA in response to this punitive measure. In return for lifting the federally mandated suspension, GRTA requires that any county with a smog problem must accept transit in exchange for receiving road funds. GRTA acts as a referee ensuring that all localities commit to the greater goal of keeping Atlanta competitive in the global economy. If a local county or city in the metropolitan region does not show a commitment to reducing its share of smog, the authority has the power to restrict road funds and redirect them elsewhere. Hence some of Atlanta’s more vehemently anti-transit counties now have, or plan to have, some sort of limited bus service (Long, 2001). The demands of capital pre-empted local secessionist tendencies. GRTA’s insistence on extending transit into Atlanta’s sprawling suburbs also addresses capitalist demands for access to labor. Secessionist land use policies, such as exclusionary zoning (restricting proliferation of apartments or lower-priced housing), have exacerbated ‘spatial mismatch’ (Ihlandfeldt and Sjoquist, 1998; Nelson, 2001). Low-skill, low-wage jobs in the retail and service sector are located vast distances from where available low-wage, low-skilled workers live (central city and inner suburbs). In response, and as part of the mission of GRTA, Atlanta’s corporate interests publicly promoted bus transit in select corridors to enable low-skilled workers to access far-flung suburban jobs. Mass Transit PopularMass transit is popular with the public, oil prices getting too high USA Today 11 (USA Today, “Ridership up on mass transit shows more people are working” http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-07/mass-transit-ridership/51720984/1 12/8/11) People are turning to public transit as a less expensive option to high gas prices, which, he says, "All of us reach a threshold of pain in our commutes." Regular gasoline averaged $3.29 a gallon Wednesday, up 33 cents from a year ago, according to the Oil Price Information Service. About 60% of public transit riders are commuters going to and from work, Melaniphy says. More use mass transit Trips in billions for the first nine months of each year. Source: American Public Transportation Association Data for the third quarter show no let up in the trend. Overall ridership was up 2% to 2.6 billion in July through September from a year earlier, and 162 of 210 transit agencies had increases. Still, the number of rides falls short of the third quarter of 2008 when ridership reached 2.73 billion . At that time, a gallon of regular gas hovered between $3.68 and $3.95 a gallon. The increase is part of an upward trend in transit ridership that has been taking place since the mid-1990s, says Bradley Lane, a professor of urban planning and transportation at the University of Texas at El Paso. Mass transit is popular with the public. It’s easier for them to get places. Lehner 2/3 (Peter Lehner, Executive Director of NRDC. 2/3/12 “Bait and Switch: House GOP Offers Drilling Bill Masquerading as a Transportation Bill” http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/bait_and_switch_house_gop_offe.html) The fund America uses to repair and expand our highways transit systems is about to go broke. But instead of endorsing responsible and proven ways to balance the books, House Republicans have assembled a transportation bill so extreme it has enflamed everyone from fiscal conservatives to public health advocates. Not only would it gut long-standing environmental safeguards and expand offshore drilling in places Congress has protected for decades. It would also eradicate a public transit fund that was crafted by President Reagan and has enjoyed bipartisan support for 30 years. The House bill would do all this damage—and deepen our oil dependence—without even paying for itself. It’s no wonder highway builders associations, conservative think tanks, taxpayer groups, and environmentalists have lined up in opposition to this bill. I don’t know one American who wants to make their trip to work longer, harder, or more expensive. Yet that is what would happen if House Republicans have their way. Commuter trains would run less often, rural bus services would decrease, and our streets would become more clogged with traffic as transit options shrink Gentrification AnswersLack of transportation in the urban area has contributed to the gentrification of the community. Only a risk that providing mass transit is the first step in destroying gentrification Sanchez at al 03 (Thomas W. Sanchez, Rich Stolz, and Jacinta S. Ma, homas W. Sanchez is an associate professor of Urban Affairs and Planning and research fellow in the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, Virginia. Rich Stolz is Senior Policy Analyst at Center for Community Change. Jacinta S. Ma is a Legal and Policy Advocacy Associate at The Civil Rights Project at Harvard, “Moving to Equity: Addressing Inequitable Effects of Transportation Policies on Minorities” Another housing-related impact of transportation policies is gentrification. Gentrification is commonly characterized as a transformation of neighborhood conditions that encompass physical, economic, and demographic dimensions and can be defined as “the process by which higher income households displace lower income residents of a neighborhood, changing the essential character and flavor of that neighborhood.”122 It occurs for a number of reasons, including increased desirability of an area due to a transportation investment such as extension of a commuter rail line, new or improved train service or station, or addition of a highway ramp or exit. Most commonly, gentrification has been portrayed in terms of residential location patterns, such as “back to the city” flows of middle-income households from the urban fringe or suburbs or elsewhere within a metropolitan area. Gentrification, however, manifests itself through reinvestment and rehabilitation of previously degraded neighborhoods, improving the physical condition and appearance of both residential and commercial properties. Due to the perception that increased property values, increased safety, and improved neighborhood amenities signal neighborhood revival, middle- income households upgrade housing conditions for their personal consumption. While owner- occupied single-family residences replace renter occupancy, businesses that target the demographic group of middle-income homeowners transform older, traditional commercial locations through reinvestment and rehabilitation of structures. Thus, the gentrification process entails physical property improvements, a demographic change to higher income levels, more “yuppie” (young, urban professionals) households, and property value increases. Some neighborhood gentrifications absorb vacant properties, while others involve replacement (or displacement) of households no longer able to afford housing due to housing cost (price/rent) appreciation. While some consider property value increases resulting from gentrification to be positive, such changes have also been criticized for worsening the well-being of low-income persons, especially in neighborhoods of color. Some have argued that increases in property values are capitalized in rent increases, which then push households that are less able to pay to other neighborhoods or to undesirable housing arrangements.123 In particular, some argue that certain antisprawl land use policies that direct housing development away from the urban fringe reduce housing affordability and limit housing choice, especially for low-income households. Others have argued, in addition to causing displacement, that gentrification is undesirable because it leads to homogenous neighborhoods that are not socioeconomically or culturally diverse.124 However, there is insufficient data to draw specific conclusions about the net social and economic impacts of transportation investments on gentrification and displacement. Oil AnswersUse of mass transit has no correlation with the oil prices. It the opposite, as the oil prices rise the ridership for mass transit rises as well. Hargreaves 2k12 (Steve Hargreaves, Writer for CNN Money, Mass transit use rises as gas prices soar, http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/12/news/economy/mass-transit/index.htm March 12th 2012 NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ridership on the nation's trains and buses hit one of the highest levels in decades, with officials crediting high gas prices, a stronger economy and new technology that makes riding public transit easier. In 2011, Americans took 10.4 billion trips on mass transit -- which includes buses, trains, street cars and ferries, according to the American Public Transportation Association. That's a 2.3% increase over 2010 and just shy of the number of trips in 2008, when gasoline spiked to a record national average of $4.11 a gallon. "As people get jobs and go back to work, they get on mass transit more," said Michael Melaniphy, president of APTA. "And then when people look at gas prices, they really get on transit more." Melaniphy said gas prices near $4 a gallon tends to be the tipping point that pushes more people onto mass transit. Obama makes alternative-fuel vehicle pushWhile the highest gasoline price spike was in 2008, gas prices averaged $3.51 a gallon in 2011 -- the highest annual average ever. Currently, nationwide average gas prices are just above $3.80 -- the highest ever for this time of year, according to AAA. Many analysts expect record gas prices in 2012 as the global economy recovers and tensions remain high in the Middle East. Ridership on public transit, which is measured by number of trips taken, hit its highest level in the mid-1940s -- roughly double today's rate. But with the widespread adoption of the automobile and America's suburbanization in the 1950s, public transit use steadily declined until the early 1970s, when gas prices spiked following the Arab oil embargo. 2011's ridership rate is the second highest since 1957. In addition to gas prices and a rebounding economy, Melaniphy said new technologies have made taking public transportation easier for the general public. A plethora of mobile-phone applications -- there are over 100 for New York City alone -- can display train or bus schedules for your current location. And count-down clocks at train platforms or bus stops take some of the frustration out of waiting for your ride. "Our member agencies are putting a better product out on the street," said Melaniphy. Roughly 5% of the population commutes using public transport, according to the Census Department. Spending on public transport totals roughly $50 billion a year, Melaniphy said. He noted that 75% of those dollars find their way to private companies in the form of construction contracts, fuel purchases and other expenditures. Funding for public transportation is split roughly evenly between federal dollars from the gasoline tax, money from state and local property and sales taxes, and ridership fees Page of Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 325.66 Kb. Share with your friends:
|