Originally Posted by
professorscott
Hi BKGuy,
First of all, almost all transportation in the United States is subsidized. The main exception is toll roads mostly pay their own way, but other than that, the gubamint pays for everything, more or less.
Public transportation improvements, like road improvements, are based on likely demand more than anything else. It's hard around here, where there hasn't been really effective public transportation for going on half a century. The decision to improve or not to improve public transportation comes down to an analysis of alternatives. Detroit, in my opinion, has been conducting a grand experiment for about 75 years to see if it is possible to build a thriving and functional region entirely based on people driving cars. The result of this experiment, again IMVHO, is "not really".
Improving public transportation so that it is only, let us say, 60% or 70% less effective than in the cities with which Detroit competes for jobs and talent might or might not make the region "better", however you measure that, than the current situation in which the region's transit is 85% or 90% less effective. I think it is worth a try, since what we've been doing isn't working all that well, but apparently many in local political leadership disagree.