>*However*, despite the importance of data for adjusting service to customer
>demand, we should recognize that there is a cost for collecting data. You
have to
>pay people to do the checks and organize the data into reports. L.A. MTA
may collect
>data well, but it also does nothing cheaply, largely because of its huge
>professional/managerial bureaucracy that does endless studies among other
things.
>
>And, by the way, this is one of the dangers in the model of an
"independent", "business->like" transit agency run by a "strong manager", as
proposed by RM's charter amendment.
>Corporate style managers have a tendency to empire-building. In the '40s
>there was one manager for every 30 workers in the U.S., now it's less than
10, I think.
This is quite true as far as it goes. The key thing to remember though is
that bureaucracy learns the lesson that work for it. The L.A. MTA seems to
have learned to do a study to justify everything and bill it out at
cost-plus The MUNI bureaucracy has learned that the only risk is in doing
anything innovative. These are probably both appropriate responses to the
environment the bureaucrats find themselves in.
In looking at the "strong manager" type proposal we need to look at what
incentives the strong management has. For example, over the last decade
BART has pretty strong management from its primary point of view of letting
contracts to pour concrete. If you look at the funding structure of BART
and the political environment of the BART Board this makes pretty good
sense -- though right now their money spinners have been missing bets.
I'm not certain in my mind about the RescueMUNI proposal in this light. I
think it is possible that it does give unnecessary incentive to the kind of
massive management the the MTA suffers from. For what it is worth I would
bring out my usual solution, that funding should be based on ridership (I'm
really pretty much of a one-trick pony). This would put a strong bias in
the management in favor of actually providing transit services. It would
want to pay for enough ridership surveys to determine where to provide
service but no more. -- Although of course any system is subject to perverse
outcomes which is why political oversight, in spite of its current ill
repute, is a good idea!