Libertarians bash D.C.’s successful bikeshare for serving wealthy whites, and miss the point of public transport

Why should Washington, D.C., subsidize its bikeshare system if it’s mostly used by white people with college degrees? That’s the question ReasonTV posed yesterday, and it’s a good one to think about.

But let’s take the reporter at her word…
By this logic, we shouldn’t be funding any parks in neighborhoods where most of the residents have money, white faces or college degrees. We should only have city-sponsored street fairs in the poorer parts of town. Public pools? Baseball fields? Waterfront esplanades? If the people using them are mostly white, moneyed or college-educated, then they don’t deserve government support.

It’s an argument that’s carefully calculated to befuddle people who are used to arguing against inequality, and who typically rage against the idea of government handouts for the well-off. Suddenly, bikeshare users are being asked to justify a publicly funded system that’s not used by everybody equally.

Except that we don’t have to justify it, because it’s public transportation.

read more: salon, 21.06.12.

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