Two thoughts: 1) Maybe this is a conversion problem, as in converting shoppers into customers. In my experience, public transit is difficult to grasp the first

Two thoughts: 1) Maybe this is a conversion problem, as in converting shoppers into customers. In my experience, public transit is difficult to grasp the first few times you use it, and complex even after that. Think of all the steps involved, and the uncertainties. Think of running out the door and using mass transit in a new city (NY if you haven't been there, or DC). Mass transit systems require users to acquire expertise to use. Signage, just as a start, is awful; identifying routes based on their endpoints is meaningless information. It's not hard to imagine how the user's interface with the system could be made much simpler, so no matter where I am I can easily and confidently learn the fastest way to get someplace else, and pay and use the system simply. 2) People deriding public transit as impossibly unpleasant or who say government couldn't possibly execute it should see how well it works in places where it's funded. New Yorkers generally love their mass transit. European cities have much better and more popular systems. It's widely done; the question is why you think the U.S. so much less competent to do it than all these other countries.