Efficient transportation is a system not a free-for-all. It requires design and a significant investment for it to work.

People depend on reliable and scheduled access to transportation. And the investments in infrastructure are far beyond anything the private sector would be able to provide.

Jeff Jared’s advocacy of jitneys and unlicensed taxis as a substitute for regular scheduled bus service ignores this and misses an obvious point.

For-profit businesses of any kind do not service markets where they cannot make money. Some areas served by public transportation are just that.

But people in those areas need transportation services just like anyone else and pay taxes for them. Jared’s jitneys would cut them off and service in other areas would be undependable.

His analogy of the postal system is also off target.  Can anyone imagine FedEx or UPS making a profit by serving all the areas the USPS is required to service six days a week?

In addition to cutting off some areas altogether, the resulting mess would put thousands more cars on an already saturated (at rush hour, anyway) highway system. If there were no scheduled service, does anyone think the park and ride lots would be as full as they are today?

The result would be a worse traffic situation than we have now because people couldn’t rely on it.As for unlicensed carriers, imagine the consequences of a bad accident and the carrier had insufficient (or no) insurance or the vehicle wasn’t properly maintained.

A libertarian might argue that the market would force the carrier out of business. Cold comfort for the injured passenger.

King County Metro isn’t a perfect system and part of the deal on car tabs is a commitment to make improvements. It will provide an improved system and that is what the citizens of King county want to see.

Bob Thompson, Kirkland