{"id":2513,"date":"2016-08-19T08:10:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T12:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2016-08-19T08:10:52","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T12:10:52","slug":"i-dont-believe-in-public-transportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=2513","title":{"rendered":"I Don&#8217;t Believe in Public Transportation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/?attachment_id=2514\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2514\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2514\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/JPA048.jpg\" alt=\"I Don't Believe in Public Transportation\" width=\"560\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/JPA048.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/JPA048-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gdata.com\/?art=\/2016\/08\/JPA048.jpg&amp;name=I Don't Believe in Public Transportation...\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/buy.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>There is nothing quite as annoying as the overenthusiastic zeal that comes with\u00a0the recently discovered\u00a0\u2014 especially when it\u00a0has been\u00a0commonly known and readily accessible\u00a0for years and years.\u00a0So I apologize in advance, but, OHMYGOSH, YOU GUYS! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SOO LOCKS?! THEY ARE AWESOMINGLY AMAZING!!!<\/p>\n<p>Last month, I finally made my first visit to Sault Ste Marie to see the Soo Locks.\u00a0You just can&#8217;t fit the scale of a\u00a0freighter being transferred\u00a0from one great lake to another in your head until you actually see it. It&#8217;s absolutely magnificent. And the tour is even better. A\u00a0ferry\u00a0takes you through the locks \u2014 up from the American side and down on the Canadian.<\/p>\n<p>It was all so very impressive, but there\u00a0was one fact that made a particular impression on me. It&#8217;s free. That&#8217;s right, <strong><em>free<\/em><\/strong>. I had no idea. Whether you&#8217;re a freighter fully laden with\u00a0taconite and heading for\u00a0the steel mills or a pleasure boat on you&#8217;re way to Pictured Rocks, you pay nothing. All of us\u00a0taxpayers\u00a0foot\u00a0the bill. And it makes a lot of sense. For the sake of commerce and industry, to promote transportation, to eliminate overhead costs of collecting fees, it&#8217;s free to the actual users.<\/p>\n<p>Look, it&#8217;s no secret that traditional public transportation is\u00a0lacking\u00a0in Michigan, especially Metro Detroit. And I&#8217;m not trying to make\u00a0a direct parallel between a commuter bus\/light-rail system and the Soo Locks. But I am saying that they share a common benefit: they are good for business. Yes, it takes some capital investment, but there can be\u00a0a much greater return on that value. And isn&#8217;t that how business is supposed to work? We have underfunded our roads for years, and see where that has gotten us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is nothing quite as annoying as the overenthusiastic zeal that comes with\u00a0the recently discovered\u00a0\u2014 especially when it\u00a0has been\u00a0commonly known and readily accessible\u00a0for years and years.\u00a0So I apologize in advance, but, OHMYGOSH, YOU GUYS! HAVE YOU SEEN THE SOO LOCKS?! THEY ARE AWESOMINGLY AMAZING!!! Last month, I finally made my first visit to Sault Ste [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andrewheller-com","category-editorial-cartoon","category-michiganradio-org"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2517,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions\/2517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}