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The interesting thing is that public transit systems are extremely inefficient. TriMet (Portland, OR) which has a modern mixed bus/light-rail system gets only

The interesting thing is that public transit systems are extremely inefficient. TriMet (Portland, OR) which has a modern mixed bus/light-rail system gets only 20% of expenses from fairs (http://trimet.org/budget/pdf/2018-adopted-budget.pdf http://trimet.org/budget/pdf/2018-adopted-budget.pdf) That is with charging $5/day capped at $100/month, so if fares were to cover the entire cost, the cost would be $500/month. So, public transit provides a bare bones, horribly uncomfortable, and inconvenient transit experience, at a cost that is only slightly lower than a car. And public transit systems are too inefficient to operate outside of high traffic hours at all. If someone in tech can figure out how to offer a shared transit system that people will actually pay for without being forced to that would be a major innovation. No public transit system has ever done it.

scandox 9y ago
> No public transit system has ever done it. Wow. Ever? In the history of mankind or just in modern history? Please elaborate, preferably at book length.
camgunz 9y ago
Mass transit is generally funded progressively, i.e. people with higher incomes pay proportionately more (via taxes) than those with lower incomes. Are you really arguing to make it regressive? There are no virtues to a regressive structure unless you have some serious animus against lower income people.
- saas_co_de 9y ago
  Not arguing anything. Just presenting some facts about the actual system costs and pointing out that there is room for innovation.
zeveb 9y ago
In fairness, private transit (e.g. cars) is also extremely inefficient, with gas taxes only paying for roughly half of the cost of roads, signage, lighting, maintenance &c. And then there's the cost in land value of parking lots, the cost to society of car accidents (until very recently, more people died due to car accidents than to guns), the emotional cost of being stuck in a little vehicle for hours upon hours a week. I do wish that public transit were nicer & cleaner. Something like PRT sounds just about perfect.

scandox 9y ago

> No public transit system has ever done it. Wow. Ever? In the history of mankind or just in modern history? Please elaborate, preferably at book length.

camgunz 9y ago

Mass transit is generally funded progressively, i.e. people with higher incomes pay proportionately more (via taxes) than those with lower incomes. Are you really arguing to make it regressive? There are no virtues to a regressive structure unless you have some serious animus against lower income people.

saas_co_de 9y ago
Not arguing anything. Just presenting some facts about the actual system costs and pointing out that there is room for innovation.

zeveb 9y ago

In fairness, private transit (e.g. cars) is also extremely inefficient, with gas taxes only paying for roughly half of the cost of roads, signage, lighting, maintenance &c. And then there's the cost in land value of parking lots, the cost to society of car accidents (until very recently, more people died due to car accidents than to guns), the emotional cost of being stuck in a little vehicle for hours upon hours a week. I do wish that public transit were nicer & cleaner. Something like PRT sounds just about perfect.