Tuesday, June 20, 2017

The Return of the Lefty Hated “Glorified City Bus With Fewer Poor People”


Of course, only in the minds of power seeking lefties are jitneys anti-poor.

Alex Tabarrok explains:
Lyft’s new service, Lyft Shuttle, works on a fixed route for a fixed fee during commute hours. Salon mocks this as a “glorified city bus with fewer poor people.” In fact, Lyft Shuttle and Uber Pool, which is moving in a similar direction, are an improved form of jitney. Jitneys were very popular in the early history of the automobile because they were cheaper, safer and more flexible than public transit but the transit companies lobbied to have them made illegal or burdened with heavy costs. 
In many less developed economies, however, jitneys remain a popular form of transit. In New York City, jitneys never quite went away but have continued to operate, mostly illegally, under the name jitneys or shared taxis or dollar vans. Moreover, contrary to Salon, the jitney has always been a form of transit appreciated by the poor. Here’s wikipedia on New York City’s dollar vans.
  RW

2 comments:

  1. I rode the "Jeepneys" of Manila, which originally used cast-off WWII jeeps, more than 30 years ago; they were great. I've always wished the smoke-belching mostly empty city buses would disappear and anyone who wanted to do as Lyft will do and run a fixed route for whatever price they could get would be far better. May be my wish will come true, but in most places it will probably be outlawed and squelched. Yes, a lifetime of watching the government ruin everything has made me a cynic.

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  2. In the West Indies, they're called "dollah bus" or "tap tap bus". Go like hell to beat other buses from grabbing passengers. Privately owned and run by local black guys (not rich). One comes along every few minutes. One dollar E.C. (about 33 cents). When the bus gets to your stop, you bang on the roof so he'll stop for ya (thus, "tap tap").
    Old joke from Grenada: How many folks can fit on a dollah bus? Answer: one more.

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