Wednesday was snowy and icy, and I decided to take Pierce Transit to get to a 9 a.m. appointment.

A quick check of the Pierce Transit website showed maps of the snow routes, and a call to the hotline (less than a three-minute wait) put me in touch with a cheerful person who told me one route was running half an hour late and another 12 minutes early. My waits at the bus stops, going to and returning from the appointment, totaled about three minutes. It is hard to imagine a taxi being more convenient.

During the ride, one of …

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Re: “Press reset button on mass transit for cities losing buses” (Our View, 11-14).

The News Tribune asserts that if the Pierce Transit Board had proposed a 0.2 percent sales tax measure, it “might well have won.” A smaller tax measure was studied and deemed infeasible by Pierce Transit. I served on the citizen committee that studied it last year.

Despite cost containment and management layoffs, it would have combined higher taxes with less bus service in outlying areas where people ride less often and costs are generally higher. The campaign logistics for communicating with voters who would be paying …

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Re: “Contracting out could improve service” (letter, 10-10)

The letter’s author writes that contracting out could be an answer to our transit needs, complaining that cut services harm our low-income population. It is not only low-income: all of us who can afford one or more cars know that this is an inefficient way to travel, especially for local commutes where a car sits idle all day.

The writer mentions “jitney” private vehicles, probably not practical today with liability and union issues, but let’s consider a private service. Henry Huntington made his own fortune and provided Greater Los Angeles with excellent …

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As a libertarian and someone who promotes open markets, it is shameful that management at Pierce Transit cannot find any alternative except to cut services, thus leaving low-income people without adequate transportation.

There are plenty of real-world examples that should be considered first, such as opening the market to private companies. According to the Feb. 6, 1915 edition of the Electric Railway Journal, there were 518 private jitney buses operating in Seattle carrying 49,000 passengers daily. Unfortunately the government regulated them out of business.

Atlantic City, N.J., has the oldest privately operating, unsubsidized transit service in the nation. The Atlantic …

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I was concerned with the letter (TNT, 9-9) from the reader who felt Pierce Transit dropped the ball regarding Puyallup Fair rides. I then went to the agency’s website and found many routes throughout the day which can take disabled passengers to the fair on their regular routes.

While there are no direct fair rides, the reader can still get to and from the fair throughout the day. He can go online and schedule his trip by using the trip planner.

Given the cutbacks incurred due to the difficult economy and lack of sales tax increases, it appears …

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This year, Pierce Transit is not transporting people to the Puyallup Fair. Instead, they have contracted with a private company. The problem is that these private buses aren’t wheelchair accessible. In lieu of this, they tell the disabled to use Pierce Transit SHUTTLE. But it takes three weeks to register with SHUTTLE and in those three weeks the Fair will be over. I’m a paraplegic and am not currently registered with Shuttle because its a thousand times easier to take the bus, so what am I to do?

And why didn’t anybody except me think about this beforehand? Why didn’t …

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Pierce Transit’s budget problems seem to be everywhere today. Its website talks about laying off employees and dropping bus routes, all in an effort to close a $51 million budget gap.

I work close to the transit bus yard on South Tacoma Way. For decades, the 15 or so acres across the street have remained undeveloped. A quick look at the Pierce County assessor-treasurer’s website revels that the nine parcels that make up the 15 acres, valued at $7.2 million, belong to PC Transit.

That is just one site. How many more are there? With everyone working to …

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Re: “Pierce Transit let community down” (letter, 6-28).

When people complain that Pierce Transit isn’t providing a previous service, they are blaming the wrong party.

It’s the Pierce County voters who are to blame. They chose to vote down a sales tax increase of less than a penny per dollar to pay for the increased costs of operation.

Cuts had to be made. Gas prices alone can be blamed for the increased costs of operation.