NTSB chairman says regionals 'can't wait' on new safety regulations

Are you kidding? Nothing is going to change until a few more planes make smoking holes on the ground for the FAA to change the rest rules. You want to fix this problem go back to regulating aircarriers. Maybe then they might be profitable enough to raise pay and benefits in order to attract the best of the best. No those who can afford it and be mediocre at best. This is aviation an unforgiving environment that requires the best of the best. Ask Sully!

And what makes Hersman think some of these items are regionals only? The major airlines have allowed long distance commuting for longer than I can remember.

Commuting is a big problem with all airlines and every pilot know it!
Often I have had an afternoon departure with a copilot that commuted in after waking up at 3 am, driving to the airport to catch a flight to his/her home base and then begin a long, demanding 12 hour duty day! These pilots are very fatigued from the start. I know because years ago when I thought I was a young superman, I used to do just that! A smart way to commute is arrive the night before. Many commuters have a "crash pad" to stay the night before a trip.
Yes, it is a big problem because many airlines do not pay enough to survive let alone enough to pay for an extra place to sleep. And now that displacement moves to other bases are a fact of life, commuting is time robbing and expensive, but safety should always come first. And proper rest is a big safety issue, especially now that the airlines schedule us to work 10-12 hour duty days.
Is regulation restricting commuting the solution? I have tossed that question around for years and I still can't answer the question.

Deregulation has created the appearance of success due to the "artificial" bargain airfares that we as consumers have now come to expect. Yes there are more flight frequencies and competition, as long as you live in a major city. Service to smaller cities was quickly downgraded or eliminated entirely, except for routes the goverment considers "essential" which are served only by bribing the airlines with a subsidy (guess whos paying for that? Yep more stimulous but this ones been going on for 30+ years).
Unfortunately, the only way the airlines can continue to deliver such historically low fares at a time when fuel costs have soared far beyond the most pessimistic predictions of just 5 years ago is: Cutting staff, and reducing their wages and benefits to the point where they mainly attract people who are either just out of high school or have a "real" job and work at the airline at night/weekends; defer and sometimes "forget" to do maintenance on their aircraft; and of course jam their customers into the smallest possible amount of space with no food whilst charging them extra for everything they can think of. This lead to the practice of pilots having to commute from affordable cities they live in to the cities where their job begins, and thus the inevitable march towards disasters like the Colgan crash. I truly the airline executives, FAA, ALPA and other related organizations will finally sit down together and create a meaningful solution before another tragedy kills more innocent lives.

This is better than when the industry was regulated?

The free market has spoken and the industry has provided the level of service and safety that the consumer is willing to pay for. Do you really think that you can fly half way across the US in 6 hours or less for less money than it would take to drive the same trip over a period of three days?

I have been in maintenance since 1972 and have seen the industry change drastically. With the continued pressure to reduce costs it seems the first thing to go is the workers wages. With this you get mediocrity at best. The pilot group tends to feed on the young with starting first officers making sub poverty wages while the high time pilots are upwards of 100k. How whould a new pilot be able to afford any better situation? Personally I havent had a pay increase for the last (5) five years. How am I suppose to keep up with the increased costs that have occured during this period?

Fatigue and unacceptably low salaries are major, major safety issues, do doubt. Another issue that has received inadequate attention since the Colgan accident and before, is the marginal pilot training provided by the regional airlines. With only a few exceptions, management continues to view the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR's) as the maximum training standards and not the minimum standards as is intended by the FAA. The training I experienced at the regional level can only be described as awful.

The FAA is raising the minimum number of flight hours required to sit in a Part 121 airplane as a result of the Colgan accident (which is illogical considering the details of the accident). Why isn't the FAA requiring higher training quality at the regional airline level.

My experience as a pilot at two different regional airlines and personal family health issues (I lost my wife to cancer and became a single parent as a result) prompted me to seek better employment opportunites outside the airlines and I'm happy to report, I did in fact find and accept a better opportunity. I'm well educated and a solid performer. I refused to tolerate what I saw at the regional level of the airline industry, especially the poor quality of training.