First of three parts

Is the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority a social-service agency that exists to help the poor, or is it infrastructure intended to serve the whole community? Which do we want it to be?

For some of us, mass transit is the difference between being able to get to work, school, or the doctor’s office and being more or less stuck at home. Sometimes that’s a matter of cost: Everything else is too expensive. Sometimes, it’s a matter of disability: A person may simply be unable to use a regular car.

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If TARTA (including its service for the disabled, known as TARPS) is a social-service agency, these are the people it exists to serve; if anyone else finds it useful, that’s a nice added bonus.

It’s also possible, and for many optimal, to run mass transit as a resource for all, like public parks. Transit can strive to attract riders who own their own cars or who can afford Uber, Lyft, or taxi fares. Sometimes, riders choose transit because it’s actually more convenient than a car. Sometimes they choose it because it’s good enough and they’d rather spend their money elsewhere.

General manager James Gee says that TARTA has both functions. But it has a lot of room for improvement, whether it is a service for those who really need it or infrastructure for all of us — and especially if it is the latter. Which improvements it makes should be guided by a clear vision. And that vision should also guide the community in deciding how much we are willing to pay for it.

If we want TARTA to contribute to all our lives by providing excellent mass transit that many of us choose for our commutes and most of us choose at least some of the time, we need to be willing to pay for that through higher taxes of some kind.

If, on the other hand, all we want from TARTA is transportation of last resort, many of those who pay for it through property taxes will not use it.

Unlike many services aimed at the poor, of course, TARTA is not means-tested; anyone can use it. But the less convenient TARTA is, the more those who have other options will use other options. Even when TARTA is actually the best option, people who are not in the habit of using it will not think to use it. That means that for many voters and taxpayers, TARTA is a burden without a benefit, or at least, without a visible benefit to them. They have an interest in keeping its costs down and reducing, or at the very least not increasing, TARTA taxes.

Tomorrow: How to improve TARTA as a social service.

First Published September 6, 2016, 4:00 a.m.