Today’s editorial in the Advocate about Jindal’s new Workforce Commission is correct in pointing out that one of the more serious obstacles for people in Louisiana to find work is the lack of public transportation. Many large parishes and metro areas such as St. Tammany have no public transportation at all, and other’s, like Jefferson Parish, it simply inadequate. And in the ex-burbs, forget about it.  The major jobs are going to be in the cities, and we need to find a way to get people from the outer rings into the cities.  This is a big problem for Baton Rouge too as it needs to find ways to get people from Livingston and Ascension parishes west into the city center.

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The nation as a whole faces serious challenges in this area, and Louisiana lags the nation in many fundamentals such as educational attainment. Basics such as low-cost transit so that people can get to work are lacking in the state, and that’s before we get into the challenges of the areas hit worst by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/opinion/23671714.html?index=1&c;=y

The easiest and quickest way to do this is to remove the barriers to private bus and rail operators to operate. Today the Public Service Commission and various public entities regulate intrastate bus lines and represent a barrier to entry that curtails private operation of bus services. For example, even after you jump through the PSC’s hoops you have to deal with individual cities and things like the airport authority.

The state should outlaw the permitting or taxes of these operators by any entity other than the state.

Encourage telecommuting. Approximately 10% of the employees at my company could work at home and 10% more could work at home 1 or 2 days a week. This is the future.

There are many business that 50% + could work at home.

I. B. Freeman - 06 July 2008 10:54 AM

The easiest and quickest way to do this is to remove the barriers to private bus and rail operators to operate. Today the Public Service Commission and various public entities regulate intrastate bus lines and represent a barrier to entry that curtails private operation of bus services. For example, even after you jump through the PSC’s hoops you have to deal with individual cities and things like the airport authority.

The state should outlaw the permitting or taxes of these operators by any entity other than the state.

Which of course would never happen because the various monopolies own the Public Service Commission and they’re virtually impossible to replace (which is why no one is stepping up against Jay “Spa Boy” Blossman).