Editorial: Use mass transit money to offset fuel costs

Everyone’s complaining about high fuel prices and begging the government — any government — for relief. In most cases, such calls should be ignored, not because the pain isn’t real but because governmental assistance would either be unaffordable or counterproductive to the important goal of getting people to curb their consumption of oil. But if one exception deserves to be made, it’s the one regarding the state’s mass transit fund.

Public and private bus companies are struggling with high fuel prices like everybody else. In fact, the price of diesel fuel has shot up even faster over the last year than gasoline, and even with increased ridership, transit companies are having a hard time making ends meet.

One notable exception, at least for the time being, is the Capital District Transportation Authority, which locked in its price for diesel fuel last year, when it was far cheaper, through next May. Still, the CDTA faces the same quandary that other transit systems face — how to maintain or expand service without raising fares.

Indeed, as a story in Thursday’s Gazette detailed, ridership has been rising at bus companies in the state, but not enough to cover higher fuel costs. The problem is, if fares are raised to offset those higher costs, it may dampen consumers’ growing enthusiasm for public transportation at just the wrong time.

The key to lower, or at least more stable, fuel costs is getting people to use less of it; that means, among other things, getting them to stop driving so much and instead to take buses (or bicycles or even their feet). With fares as low as $1, it’s practically impossible for someone with a commute of more than a few miles to make the case that driving is more economically viable; but it’s getting increasingly difficult for transit systems to maintain fares that low.

One thing that would help them is money from the state, which has a $6.3 million fund for just such purposes. The financially strapped state might be tempted to divert that money to its general fund, but it’s not large enough to make much difference. On the other hand, it would probably be of considerable help to small and medium-sized transit systems. If ever there were a time to release such money for mass transit assistance, it’s now.