I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see the local mainstream media speak out against PART’s request for a $3 vehicle tax hike. Today the Winston-Salem Journal says:

It’s oft been noted that while some PART buses are filled to capacity — such as the Mount Airy bus to Winston-Salem — some buses seem close to empty. PART is constantly monitoring ridership in an attempt to tweak the routes. It should continue that work, as well as enhancing its marketing strategies to recruit new riders and strongly considering raising fares. In these economic times, that’s a better ticket for PART than adding a fee onto auto registration costs.

But a letter to the editor in today’s N&R offers a different point of view:

The facts seem to be: PART (the regional public bus system) needs more money to operate. Their proposal is to add a $3 tax to car registrations. The News & Record disagrees: instead, you say, raise the rate for the bus riders themselves. After all, they are the ones who benefit.

I’m the last guy (ask my wife) who wants to pay more taxes. But in this case, I’ll suck up the extra $6 a year (we have two cars) to help the people who ride the bus.

Why? I suspect most of those people are riding the bus to get to work, to earn a living, to stay off the dole. I suspect they can’t afford a car (duh) —that’s why they’re riding the bus!

That may be true, but a JLF study by David Hartgen stated for the most part bus riders “use the systems primarily as ‘stepping stones’ for improving personal mobility,” meaning as soon as they can afford it, they buy a car. Which mean PART will never have stable rider base and will always serve a very small portion of the population.