Now you are talking magic mushrooms. > but look at per person in the city and the amount is tiny In a city of about 400,000 people the per-person taxes that p

Now you are talking magic mushrooms. > but look at per person in the city and the amount is tiny In a city of about 400,000 people the per-person taxes that pay for the system are no-fucking-where-near "tiny". For a grid public network that also works at night the costs would easily be thousands per year per person (I did look up the current figures). The bus service is virtually unused by the vast majority: On average, Christchurch residents spend 221 hours a year behind a wheel to just 10 hours on public transport. For Aucklanders, it's 187 hours to 25, and for Wellingtonians, 134 hours to 34. Because buses are simply unusable without rediculous compromises. I know because I try to use buses and this expensive system is usually unavailable to me (my parents place has no service, there is no service at night, I can't carry tools, trailer, zero recreational trips). I have lived without a car for plenty of time (6 months last year) so I know the actual individual costs and benefits. Other people can't afford the compromises required to use the bus service. If you can afford a car you use one because the public alternatives are shit. Only a despotic Stalin could force most people to use a public transport system in my city. Perhaps you don't believe in freedom of choice. You wish to tax people to pay for a system they don't want to use. Cars are the long term outcome of people voting with their feet and their wallets. I understand why public transport is good. But you seem unwilling to listen to why public transport in my city is unusably bad. > However for most of the trips people make every day a great transit system could exist that we be as good as - or better - than a car trip. Condescending. Even the best public transport I have used is often a shit experience. Wave that magic wand again and give us all our own unicorn