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The "way to go" is most easily concluded by observing where growth of demand and then corresponding supply happens with no government subsidy, an often in spite of direct government interference.
For transportation, that would be ride and bike sharing. Uber/Lyft and the various bike shares occurred organically. Entrepreneurs with some capital and an idea invested in experiments that ended up taking off because they make the most sense to the consumer. You know they make the most sense to the consumer because given all available choices, the consumer chooses them over something else.
And over the last few years, the "way to go" has been so successful, it is actually disrupting and destroying less efficient modes of inter and intra city travel, to the point where government is stepping in to squash progress in the name of archaic, less efficient solutions.
In this thread, we hear the echo:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarallel
Well, in NYC, ridership is growing. Good reason to maybe add a tax to individual gasoline sales. And ban Uber.
Plenty of cities are on the bandwagon to ban the most efficient, highest demand solution in order to give life support to the least efficient, lowest demand solution, that also requires government subsidy to be profitable. makes no sense, as in none whatsoever.
The market is pretty at signaling what they want, and ride/bike sharing wins because the market says so.
Trains are so appealing....especially when they let homeless idiots ride on them for free and they don’t get off. Mass transit worked when we had a civil society.
I think a big driver (no pun intended) for the decline is the poor quality of our systems. Inferior technology, constant delays, and just general run down stations and cars. Who wants to use that?
I would add improving economy helps people buy cars, transit systems are notoriously unsafe (just look at the crime in the San Francisco BART system and Chicago Systems).
That and the stations look like they never finished building them...and have looked that way for 100 years.
It's ok, though, in Chicago we have an ugly tinker toy train system snaking around our downtown...and have had that eyesore for 100 years.
Huh? That’s one of Chicago’s most iconic symbols, lol. I hope you guys don’t wanna wish away the John Hancock Tower and Marina City as well. Geesh.
IN the case of NYC, it isn't just the godawful stinky subways and busses. It has 3 overground rail systems feeding into it - MNRR, LIRR and NJT. MNRR ridership has been rising every year for the past four years. Its basically pollution-free and moves huge numbers of people very efficiently. Suburbs on the rail lines command a premium in property prices over those not served by rail lines. Plus, the commute is civilized. People sleep, read or do work. It works very well for MNRR, less so for NJT which has more delay complaints and LIRR which attracts a different sort of crowd mixed in with the commuters.
Until car commuting becomes entirely automatic and road jams are avoided by AI car control, the MNRR and others don't really have any competition for people who like an easy commute.
I think a big driver (no pun intended) for the decline is the poor quality of our systems. Inferior technology, constant delays, and just general run down stations and cars. Who wants to use that?
Not to mention many of these major stations tend to stop in the worst parts of the neighborhood, and like you said, why go through that when you can just get a car and avoid the bad parts?
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