Dave Riemer-Land of Forgotten Statistics

Dave Riemer is a very bright guy.

Bright enough to "forget" the applicable comparative calculations.

He rattles on about the holiness, goodness, truthfulness, and general Wonderfulness of supporting ChooChooTrains to Madistan, compared with the Dark Evil of Asphalt and concrete:

…. How can any reasonable person admit it's OK to use $1.5 billion in property taxes, income taxes and sale taxes to finance a 40% bailout of our roads so that users only have to pay 60% of the cost of the very streets and highways they use, but then denounce the use of general tax revenues to pay for even a portion of railroads and insist that this particular type of "road" must be fully paid for by its users?

If we massively subsidize roads made of concrete and asphalt for people who drive cars and trucks, there's nothing wrong with a comparable subsidy for roads made of steel rails for people who ride trains.

Too bad that someone asked the right question.

Do the math. Subsidy per vehicle mile traveled on state roads – all state roads – calculates to $0.028. Lo and behold, subsidy per vehicle mile traveled via the high-speed rail endowed from on high calculates to $0.251. And remember, that’s only the annual operating subsidy – no construction included.

IOW, Puff the MagicDragonChooChoo will cost the taxpayer TEN TIMES what roads do, per passenger-mile--not even counting the capital cost, nor counting truck-mileage, and "giving away" the typical automobile's REAL passenger-load.

P-Mac also mentions that streets are actually useful for OTHER things than just cars.

HT: Jo Egelhoff