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I think it's also a cultural thing. Americans do _not_ like public transit. They'll tolerate it maybe (though they will complain about how taxes are too high, t
by bleair 8y ago
I think it's also a cultural thing. Americans do _not_ like public transit. They'll tolerate it maybe (though they will complain about how taxes are too high, the transit itself costs too much, and how it's inconvenient).
If you are successful, if you're happy, you own a car and you drive. As a example, if you've lived in LA just imagine how humorous it would be if a successful person you meet at a party or dinner said "yup, I took the bus to get here".
Only the low income and undesirables are forced into using public transit. So station locations, and transportation that feeds into the public network will always be second or third tier.
In Japan they have the ridership and society generally thinks good thoughts about their public transit.
- nine_k 8y agoThis is because LA is basically a giant suburb with a few city-like areas. USA have very few "proper", dense cities, in the European sense of the world. In these cities, like NYC and Chicago, public transit does quite OK. A lot of successful people don't own a car exactly because they can afford not to. Of course, most of the US territory, including most cities, and areas as important as major cities (see Silicon Valley) are suburbs, if not outright countryside. At a low density, public transportation makes much, much less sense, so it's not get built.