The program — as well as weekend Trolley service — is on the chopping block for the 2014 budget cycle and it should not be. City Manager Ron LeBlanc’s justification for the cut is that the city should not be subsidizing transportation out of its general fund and that parking meters are not generating enough to offset the increased ridership. While the balance sheet perspective is sound, the notion of reducing supply of services that are in increasing demand is not. Instead, the city should either increase fees or invest in the needed and useful transportation services it has built.

There are many a reason why: liveability, safety, accessibility, conservation, congestion, and economic development, to name a few.

http://www.naccho.org/advocacy/testimony/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=193952

http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/survey-investing-mass-transit-key

http://www.planetizen.com/node/64650