Getting a Free Ride

It was recently reported in the papers that in the DC area, government members of the state and counties that have toll roads, or that use the remote toll systems EZ-Pass or SmartTag are given free transponders so that they don't have to pay for the tolls they incur going along the roads. Police and emergency vehicles and public transportation also receive these transponders and it helps them move around a bit faster and take roads that would ordinarily be clogged like other arteries around the area. Now while I think this is fine for the police or emergency crews, I don't think it's quite fair for government officials to get the same benefit and here's why. If you don't get affected by the policies that you make, you have no business making the policy in the first place.

What I mean by this is that the government officials who have the ultimate authority over how much people pay in tolls or charges do not have to pay a cent. Sure they'll have to pay once they leave office but generally they don't leave office until they are thrown out or they retire to Florida in which case it doesn't matter how much to toll is. I remember the press conference sometime back where President Bush was asked about how he felt about the fact that (at that time) fuel costs were looking to reach at least $4 a gallon. His reaction astounded me because he seemed to be in utter shock that the cost per gallon of gasoline was so high. I'm sure as President he doesn't have to fill up the tank on his limo or on his other forms of transport, but not knowing what your constituents are paying on average gallon of fuel shows either disinterest or disregard for the common man.

Sure the President has other issues that are of greater concern so perhaps it's understandable but that still doesn't excuse the fact that state and local officials are able to use these roads for free. Same goes for Metro fares; it was recently reported that Metro officials who determine when to raise fares apparently don't have to pay a dime to ride the system. So they can ride the rails and see the problems and then raise the fares to fix them while ignoring the fact that its hitting the pocketbooks of everyone else. People can say that this is a benefit or perk of being in office and that what they pay amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things. But I ask you then to consider why anyone else's dollars should matter any more than the next persons.

Why are people willing to take toll roads or mass transit? Because with rising fuel costs, it makes more sense to take the way that means less fuel expenditure for the average trip because lets face it, you burn less fuel when you're moving at a steady pace rather than at a standstill in traffic. But if the costs of using these alternatives keeps going up then how are we to look at the alternatives. It costs an arm and a leg (soon to be two of each) to fuel up the car every week or every other week if you're lucky; it's getting to the point that perhaps the cost savings ways will also end up costing just as much. Still, while the officials determining when to raise the prices may not feel the pinch financially, if they could only see how much they're paying for how little improvement overall, perhaps they'd begin to reconsider.