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It's important to recognize that public transit as a concept has major opponents in North America and cities are constantly having to fight to be able to build

It's important to recognize that public transit as a concept has major opponents in North America and cities are constantly having to fight to be able to build necessary infrastructure. Bafflingly expansion and funding of transit seems to need to go to referendums, where projects are frequently defeated (a yes vote in a referendum is very tough to achieve). In contrast other transportation infrastructure simply goes ahead as regular government spending. Ideological Anti-Tax, special interest groups have put huge amounts of money and effort into discrediting and defunding public transit and turning public opinion against expansion projects that would benefit everyone. The most recent example of this would be the Vancouver transit referendum, where the Canadian Taxpayers Federation seeded the idea that the transit runner Translink was a woefully inefficient organization even though in reality by almost any measure it's the best performing transit system on the west coast of NA. In the United states the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity group has been pushing back against transit expansion and funding all across America. http://billmoyers.com/2014/10/03/koch-brothers-war-transit/ http://billmoyers.com/2014/10/03/koch-brothers-war-transit/

akshatpradhan 11y ago
> major opponents in North America and cities are constantly having to fight to be able to build necessary infrastructure. Bafflingly expansion and funding of transit seems to need to go to referendums, where projects are frequently defeated (a yes vote in a referendum is very tough to achieve). Its not working, so what can the US Gov do RIGHT NOW to implement a better system than Hong Kong?
- Tiktaalik 11y ago
  I am not an American so forgive me if this answer is not viable due to the structure of American government, but the simple solution is continuous and steady investment in public transit detached from political tampering. Many of these failed referendums were about creating a local tax in order to provide that dependable pool of transit funding for expansion and operating costs. A solution would be for the government to take the initiative and start seriously funding public transit, considering it a first class citizen along with the road and highway network.
  - jrockway 11y ago
    The roots of the MTA were in an agency detached from political tampering. It used the lack of political influence to raze entire neighborhoods to build freeways. The MTA was mostly created to remove this power from Robert Moses.
x0x0 11y ago
Not to mention the massive subsidies for driving: roads, parking, trillion dollar wars in the middle east to secure oil supplies. None of these are questioned, but a couple billion for public transit takes giant fights.

akshatpradhan 11y ago

> major opponents in North America and cities are constantly having to fight to be able to build necessary infrastructure. Bafflingly expansion and funding of transit seems to need to go to referendums, where projects are frequently defeated (a yes vote in a referendum is very tough to achieve). Its not working, so what can the US Gov do RIGHT NOW to implement a better system than Hong Kong?

Tiktaalik 11y ago
I am not an American so forgive me if this answer is not viable due to the structure of American government, but the simple solution is continuous and steady investment in public transit detached from political tampering. Many of these failed referendums were about creating a local tax in order to provide that dependable pool of transit funding for expansion and operating costs. A solution would be for the government to take the initiative and start seriously funding public transit, considering it a first class citizen along with the road and highway network.
- jrockway 11y ago
  The roots of the MTA were in an agency detached from political tampering. It used the lack of political influence to raze entire neighborhoods to build freeways. The MTA was mostly created to remove this power from Robert Moses.

x0x0 11y ago

Not to mention the massive subsidies for driving: roads, parking, trillion dollar wars in the middle east to secure oil supplies. None of these are questioned, but a couple billion for public transit takes giant fights.