@Jasper, Ok, I know this is like 3 days late, but still.
And go explain that service worker that got fired for not showing up because metro was closed that it's not up to transit to fight poverty.I really want to push back on the notion that the Transit Authority is in any way personally accountable to poor workers. It's a form of category error to think of going to "explain" this situation to affected service worker. If there's a traffic jam, road construction, or car accident, we wouldn't suggest that the State Highway Administration go explain to impacted workers. We both obviously care about the poor, but I find this an especially ineffective line of thought.
I think I'm trying to say that a ruthless emphasis on efficiency is better for everyone, especially the poor.
Perhaps a slightly different way of describing my point here comes from Jarrett Walker at Human Transit:
This benefit of transit should routinely be described in terms of economic efficiency, as Ive done here, rather than appealing to pity or to alleged economic rights, as social-service language often implicitly does. The appeal of the social service argument is just too narrow, especially in the US.