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Not a viable solution in America. Americans are allergic to public transportation and density. Even in places where public transportation is relatively good by
by voidfunc 3y ago
Not a viable solution in America. Americans are allergic to public transportation and density. Even in places where public transportation is relatively good by American standards it's seen as a money pit.
- daddylonglegs 3y agoIIRC very few public transport systems make a profit on running costs - never mind capital costs. The rest operate as money pits. Useful systems have huge positive externalities that can't be captured by charging passengers at a rate that reflects those benefits (I'm not sure if this is due to a free-loader effect, irrationality on the passengers part or something else). I think the only systems that have profited on scale commensurate with their benefits are those that were a real estate play, eg.: the Metropolitan Line[1] in London, Los Angeles trams, Hong Kong subways. I might be wrong about these examples, either due to misremembering or to falling to a just-so story. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-land https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-land Edit: formatting. Edit 2: The point, I think, is that if you rely on direct profits for the transport system you give up on huge benefits and accept huge costs across society.