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Public transit shouldn't be expensive. It shouldn't pretty much ever run outside the red. The whole point of it is to incentivize its use and promote efficient
by zanny 8y ago
Public transit shouldn't be expensive. It shouldn't pretty much ever run outside the red. The whole point of it is to incentivize its use and promote efficient means of travel. The only reason to charge at all is to disincentivize unnecessary consumption of it.
If you are doing city planning you want as many people on the Subway as you can get. It enables greater density at ground level and is much cheaper to maintain (if you maintain it) than overcongested road networks and the required parking.
- dluan 8y agoIt's an odd and funny argument to make that your product is working well if it's always on fire or broken, which you would think an HN commenter like a sysadmin would understand. It just seems the margins for error get ever thinner as your system scales. Other systems have figured this out, like Tokyo where they change over a major-use track in one night. Meanwhile, MTA shuts down the L for 15 months.
- jimnotgym 8y agoBut someone has to pay? Broadly speaking either 1) The businesses pay to get their human resources to work 2) The travellers pay or 3) Central taxation pays So who should pay in New York?
- zanny 8y agoObviously taxes. Those who benefit most from public transit are those least able to afford it, but making the cost baked in to the wealth of the people can driven even someone with a personal driver to maybe fathom using the tube instead once in a while if its borderline free.
- jimnotgym 8y agoIt's not so obvious who you are going to tax. Are you going to do it from income taxes, local property taxes,local business taxes, corporation taxes?