Vulnerable members, not valuable. Though those terms are not mutually exclusive.

What proportion of public transportation do you think the public should pay? While public transportation isn’t a “public good” in the strict economic sense, it is certainly “public good” adjacent.

Everyone emphasizes one aspect of public transportation, that of relieving congestion by getting vehicles off the road, when they want to denigrate it. But what about providing transportation for those without a vehicle of their own? I understand that one side of the aisle absolutely loathes the social safety net, but at least be explicit about it. The people that need public transportation are easy to vilify and/or ignore, not unlike the homeless population. It’s been said one can judge a society by how it treats the its most valuable members. Do a little reading on how a majority of CCT commenters feel about the homeless and how they believe they should be treated.

And is efficiency always the priority in public policy? Public parks, homeless shelters, parades, libraries, and many of other public goods and services are hardly efficient. Neither is the US military, SNAP, Medicare/Medicaid, or child tax credits. Perhaps we should abolish them all.

I really can’t get myself to be as passionate about the IBR as many of the readers here clearly are. But if we want efficiency, why are so many people against tolls? Tolls will create revenue, mitigate the impact on taxpayers, and maybe push some people to choose public transit.

Public transit “efficient”? How about showing a single public transit system that even turns a profit? There are none that turn a profit – and I’m sure that all have there fair share of waste that would make any DOGE member go bonkers over.

Amanda — I would welcome your suggestions for “making public transit more efficient”. Truly.

The IBR is proposing a 1.83 mile MAX light rail extension, for $2 billion. That’s over $1 billion per mile. I don’t believe that is “efficient” use of the people’s money.

The MAX Yellow Line travels 14 mph. That is about HALF the speed of current C-Tran bus express service into downtown Portland. How is traveling 14 mph “more efficient”?

Currently, Clark County taxpayers foot 95 percent of C-Tran Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs. At TriMet, taxpayers foot 92 percent of all TriMet O&M costs. What ideas do you propose to reduce the taxpayer burden in both transit systems?

Thank you.

Clark County residents would rather sit in traffic than spend any money on rebuilding failing infastructure or making public transit more efficient. Interesting to see the weekend traffic from Clark County to Oregon to avoid sales tax. Oh yes, the blatant dislike of anyone who disagrees sounds more like the revenge mission of the current occupant of the White House.

Raise your united voices, confront the political bridge group(s) who think they have endless power to disregard what the average citizen of Clark County wants, write letters, complain, remember names, and demand answers for their disregard of the average citizen. Remember their blatant dislike of anyone who disagrees with them, they kick them out//off…cowards. But that’s not the end of story.