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There is absolutely no "shortcut" for cities to skimp on having sufficient transit infrastructure to get people where they need to go. If you underbuild, people
by zanny 8y ago
There is absolutely no "shortcut" for cities to skimp on having sufficient transit infrastructure to get people where they need to go. If you underbuild, people drive cars. If you overcharge, people drive cars. If you restrict car traffic, people simply don't move or work in your city and your economy dies.
One way to balance between free ride abuse and people not using the trains because they have a car is to give residents the "average" number of rides a commuter would use in a week to them every week for free. Maybe even give people who don't own motor vehicles more free rides as a "thank you" from the city for not making them maintain the road and parking infrastructure for you.
But any city that is not expanding its transit to meet demand is crippling its own economic potential. Its a shame that pretty much every US city is guilty of this but most of the US government is designed to self-sabotage things like publicly run transit anyway.
- k_sh 8y ago> most of the US government is designed to self-sabotage things like publicly run transit anyway What level of US government is sabotaging transit? The federal government doles out at least $2.3B every year for transit projects[0], meanwhile state and local governments throughout the US are approving tax increases for more transit. [0]: https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grant-programs/capital-investments/about-program https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grant-programs/capital-i...
- Cyph0n 8y ago$2.3b sounds like peanut spending given the scale of the US and the current state of transit in the country.
- crowbahr 8y agoAnd 41 billion by the federal government is spent on roads. 168 billion total from state and local. https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/highway-and-road-expenditures https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiative... Public transit on the other hand sees only 24.38 billion total. https://www.bts.gov/browse-statistical-products-and-data/transportation-economic-trends/tet-2017-chapter-7-government https://www.bts.gov/browse-statistical-products-and-data/tra...
- x220 8y ago>$2.3B every year At this level a couple billion dollars is hardly anything.
- seszett 8y ago> The federal government doles out at least $2.3B every year for transit projects That's about a fifth of what just Paris spends per year. For a 300-million inhabitants country, it seems a bit low.