A few months ago, I was appalled during an orientation session for new employees (I work for a municipal govn't), the most senior ranking government manager who welcomed us, after asking how many people took local transit (bus, light rail), said that we "had to balance use of our money" and not focus so much about transit.

He justified his remarks, by saying he took transit himself 1-2 times per week. Then he said as a car driver, he didn't want all his tax dollars for transit.

Over 40% of the new employees in that room that he welcomed, took transit daily to get to work. There was approx. 30 employees in the room. (The city has 14,000 employees on the payroll. Yea, freakin' huge employer.)

While yes, one has to balance city budget-spending priorities, the context of even making such remarks by him (earning the highest salary of all bureaucrats in the city), it felt like a slap in the face for us in the room.