{"id":772,"date":"2009-07-24T18:12:32","date_gmt":"2009-07-24T22:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/?p=772"},"modified":"2009-07-24T18:16:49","modified_gmt":"2009-07-24T22:16:49","slug":"the-dig-plugging-holes-in-public-transit-budgets-an-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/blogs\/the-dig-plugging-holes-in-public-transit-budgets-an-update\/772\/","title":{"rendered":"Plugging holes in public transit budgets: An update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Rick Karr, Blueprint America correspondent <\/em><\/p>\n<p>As <em>Blueprint America<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/reports\/transit-in-trouble\/video-public-transit-faces-new-pressures-part-one\/485\/\">reported<\/a> earlier this year, when more people decide to leave their cars at home and use public transit instead, it has the perverse effect of actually increasing transit agencies&#8217; deficits. We filed that report from California because the problem was especially bad there, given the state&#8217;s budget troubles. Now, two transit agencies in the Bay Area have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/&lt;br &gt;&lt;\/a&gt; breakingnews\/ci_12715765\">increased fares to trim<\/a> deficits.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Charley Anderson, general manager of the WESTCAT transit system in suburban Oakland, tells us that the financial situation there is a bit better, as some stimulus money is now available to help agencies cover operating expenses.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Nation<\/em> has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/&lt;br &gt;&lt;\/a&gt; 20090803\/adler\">more comprehensive overview<\/a> of transit agencies&#8217; troubles nationwide. (St. Louis Metro, currently the poster child for transit deficits, was the subject of a <em>Blueprint America<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/reports\/st-louis- paratransit\/audio-full-report\/204\/\">radio story<\/a> last year.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rick Karr, Blueprint America correspondent As Blueprint America reported earlier this year, when more people decide to leave their cars at home and use public transit instead, it has the perverse effect of actually increasing transit agencies&#8217; deficits. We filed that report from California because the problem was especially bad there, given the state&#8217;s budget [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1028,4281],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-dig"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Dig ~ Plugging holes in public transit budgets: An update | Blueprint America | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/blogs\/the-dig-plugging-holes-in-public-transit-budgets-an-update\/772\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dig ~ Plugging holes in public transit budgets: An update | Blueprint America | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rick Karr, Blueprint America correspondent As Blueprint America reported earlier this year, when more people decide to leave their cars at home and use public transit instead, it has the perverse effect of actually increasing transit agencies&#8217; deficits. We filed that report from California because the problem was especially bad there, given the state&#8217;s budget [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/blogs\/the-dig-plugging-holes-in-public-transit-budgets-an-update\/772\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blueprint America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-24T22:12:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-07-24T22:16:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tom mcnamara\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tom mcnamara\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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