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Much of Japan's train network is privately operated. Japan has some of the best transportation in the world. Take a look at Brightline. Brightline from Orlando

by 65 1y ago

Much of Japan's train network is privately operated. Japan has some of the best transportation in the world. Take a look at Brightline. Brightline from Orlando to Miami had 2.7 million riders last year. They're already working on Brightline West from LA to Las Vegas. I think public transportation infrastructure is great for rural areas. It's similar to USPS serving everyone. But if USPS was the only mail carrier everywhere, package delivery service would be demonstrably worse. What is wrong with both private and public transportation infrastructure?

GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
i think the US lacks the regulatory structure and social character that's more present in Japan that make private-public services more successful there. as a regular metro commuter, i don't think i'd be totally opposed to private transit in LA if it were heavily regulated. but without that, i'd rather deal with all the problems on the metro (stinky riders, drivers switching mid-route, track traffic) at 1.75 per ride, than any of my money go to making Uber shareholders (or anyone who profits by exploiting the "gig economy") more money.
- cryptonector 1y ago
  The U.S. used to have a vibrant private transportation industry. The cities killed it. NYC is a great example. The vast majority of the NYC subway system was constructed by _two_ private companies (!) in the 19-teens(!) in competition with each other(!!). The city regulated them and kept them from raising fares in the 20s and 30s. By the 40s the city had to rescue and acquire them because they could not survive on artificially-low fares. And until the 50s there was a vibrant trolley car and bus network between Brooklyn and Queens. Today only the city runs buses, and there is much less capacity per-capita between Brooklyn and Queens. It's the same nationwide, roughly. There is nothing like Buenos Aires' private bus system in the U.S. because the cities don't allow it. It didn't have to be that way. But in the U.S. the federal government has no power to nationalize, the States do but are in competition with each other so they don't do it. But the cities? The cities can totally "nationalize" the transport industry, and they do and did all the way up until ride sharing came along to destroy the hyper-regulated taxi industry. Ride sharing grew fast enough that the cities did not have time to quash it and now they can't without incurring the ire of their citizens. Now finally comes the ride sharing industry to -let us hope- finally destroy the cities' stranglehold on public transportation.
  - GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
    kindly, what would make you believe that the private, highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation ride sharing industry would produce a mass-transit product that remains price/service-competitive in an american city? i have zero trust in the private sector to do anything that won't turn into a gated community, become abandoned, or rely on labor that they won't exploit worse than what they already do with "the gig economy". we can have the private sector provide public good but we don't have the regulatory infrastructure in place to enforce that, and the more we strengthen the private sector at the expense of the public sector, the further we get away from that, and the closer we get to Biff's America.
    - cryptonector 1y ago
      > kindly, what would make you believe that the private, highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation ride sharing industry would produce a mass-transit product that remains price/service-competitive in an american city? Your question very unkindly builds in a biased premise, namely that "highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation". Also, ride sharing killed taxis by essentially working around a ridiculous pile of regulations, and good thing too, and we should all be thankful for that. So right off the bat your reply is phony. You were not being kind. But I'll answer it anyways: I gave you an existence proof that such a product can exist. Buenos Aires is even an American city in a way :) Sure, it's not proof that such a thing can work here, but then too no U.S. city has tried to put together a public-private public transportation partnership like Buenos Aires', so in fact we can't know until we try, but your attitude is one of the reasons we can't even try.
      - GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
        https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak... https://www.vice.com/en/article/uber-became-big-by-ignoring-laws-and-it-plans-to-keep-doing-that/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/uber-became-big-by-ignoring-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Uber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Uber references over 100 articles of Uber's behavior. This is not bias; this is fact.

by 65 1y ago

GuinansEyebrows 1y ago

i think the US lacks the regulatory structure and social character that's more present in Japan that make private-public services more successful there. as a regular metro commuter, i don't think i'd be totally opposed to private transit in LA if it were heavily regulated. but without that, i'd rather deal with all the problems on the metro (stinky riders, drivers switching mid-route, track traffic) at 1.75 per ride, than any of my money go to making Uber shareholders (or anyone who profits by exploiting the "gig economy") more money.

cryptonector 1y ago
The U.S. used to have a vibrant private transportation industry. The cities killed it. NYC is a great example. The vast majority of the NYC subway system was constructed by _two_ private companies (!) in the 19-teens(!) in competition with each other(!!). The city regulated them and kept them from raising fares in the 20s and 30s. By the 40s the city had to rescue and acquire them because they could not survive on artificially-low fares. And until the 50s there was a vibrant trolley car and bus network between Brooklyn and Queens. Today only the city runs buses, and there is much less capacity per-capita between Brooklyn and Queens. It's the same nationwide, roughly. There is nothing like Buenos Aires' private bus system in the U.S. because the cities don't allow it. It didn't have to be that way. But in the U.S. the federal government has no power to nationalize, the States do but are in competition with each other so they don't do it. But the cities? The cities can totally "nationalize" the transport industry, and they do and did all the way up until ride sharing came along to destroy the hyper-regulated taxi industry. Ride sharing grew fast enough that the cities did not have time to quash it and now they can't without incurring the ire of their citizens. Now finally comes the ride sharing industry to -let us hope- finally destroy the cities' stranglehold on public transportation.
- GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
  kindly, what would make you believe that the private, highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation ride sharing industry would produce a mass-transit product that remains price/service-competitive in an american city? i have zero trust in the private sector to do anything that won't turn into a gated community, become abandoned, or rely on labor that they won't exploit worse than what they already do with "the gig economy". we can have the private sector provide public good but we don't have the regulatory infrastructure in place to enforce that, and the more we strengthen the private sector at the expense of the public sector, the further we get away from that, and the closer we get to Biff's America.
  - cryptonector 1y ago
    > kindly, what would make you believe that the private, highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation ride sharing industry would produce a mass-transit product that remains price/service-competitive in an american city? Your question very unkindly builds in a biased premise, namely that "highly-likely-to-ignore-or-skirt-regulation". Also, ride sharing killed taxis by essentially working around a ridiculous pile of regulations, and good thing too, and we should all be thankful for that. So right off the bat your reply is phony. You were not being kind. But I'll answer it anyways: I gave you an existence proof that such a product can exist. Buenos Aires is even an American city in a way :) Sure, it's not proof that such a thing can work here, but then too no U.S. city has tried to put together a public-private public transportation partnership like Buenos Aires', so in fact we can't know until we try, but your attitude is one of the reasons we can't even try.
    - GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
      https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak-reveals-global-lobbying-campaign https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-files-leak... https://www.vice.com/en/article/uber-became-big-by-ignoring-laws-and-it-plans-to-keep-doing-that/ https://www.vice.com/en/article/uber-became-big-by-ignoring-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Uber https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_surrounding_Uber references over 100 articles of Uber's behavior. This is not bias; this is fact.