Raise the Hammer

"The most disingenuous argument is that we should wait until we have a superb public transit system that goes everywhere before making it any more expensive or inconvenient to drive.

Of course, these same people would howl about the huge tax increases required to build the transit system, and complain it is unfair that they should pay since they don't use it (cue HSR's chronic under-funding)."

See that is hardly fair and smacks of robbing Peter to pay Paul. If you start putting a cost burden on people without offering them a viable option then all you're doing is overtaxing a segment of the population that is already taxed at quite a high rate. If your area had only one bus that ran infrequently and added an disproportionate amount of time to your daily 'grind', how is it fair to charge that same group extra for a service when they already pay a healthy chunk of the freight already for that service and you offer them no alternative.

I am not against the idea, and actually like the concept of sort of pay as you go travel using technology provided privacy concerns could be figured out, but if transit is not addressed prior to implementing this system, your plan has already failed. No transit means people will be forced to drive rather than suffer through unacceptable commuting times meaning that you have not encouraged more transit use nor got cars off the road. The ancilliary effects is you've added more expenses to people who in most cases ill afford them and will see a knock on effect through the local economy when there's less disposable income out there.

I know there are smart, intellegent ways out there that we can overhaul the way we go about moving around the region, but to put the initial burden on one cross section of the citizenry and tell them to lump it will ensure that we never see any forward movement on the issue.