>feel-good-ism Trails and paths are considered (or should be considered) part of a city's recreation system as well. Chances are that the trail and bike path w

>feel-good-ism Trails and paths are considered (or should be considered) part of a city's recreation system as well. Chances are that the trail and bike path was converted from railway right-of-way meaning it was built for fairly cheap. I'd argue that even if a trail wasn't used for commuting it has served another purpose: to make people feel good. Also, there's a lot of reasons why people might not bike to work; a lack of biking infrastructure is just one of those reasons. >Same with buses. There are a few routes that service big apartment complexes and go too and from campus. Those get used. The others drive around empty, or with a few people on them. One goal of public transportation is to provide a mobility alternative to private car ownership for those who, for whatever reason, can't drive (or bike, or walk). For those relatively few people, a bus that runs every half-hour or so is much more useful than a bus that only runs twice in the morning and evening. But it's likely they depend on it. So yes, a lot of bus routes will be empty by design. It's a lot like how Amtrak uses popular routes like the Acela to subsidize train routes to very small towns.