Texas is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with America (sales tax, military)

[Soonhun]

Originally Posted by briskwheel

What you need to incentivize public transit is the following:

1. Heavy traffic, meaning it takes 30mins to travel 2mi.
2. Cost. If you need to pay taxes and have to have parking passes and other stickers
3. Convenience. If the subway station is a 2min walk away but you had to park your car in a garage that's 15mins away

Most of America except for maybe NYC, Chicago, and DC don't have these issues so that's why people prefer to drive.

Go to London or Paris for a day and try to get around in taxis or Ubers and you'll quickly realize why most people prefer public transit.

Me personally, I prefer driving because I've had to deal with far too many sketchy people on public transit. But then again, drivers are terrible and put my life at risk on a regular basis, so I'm not sure what's worse.

I've said this before but I like to repeat myself. Transit is successful, defined as having high ridership, in parts of the US because of the failures of road infrastructure, not actual merit of the public transit. Don't get me wrong, I love public transit and has said many times before that I easily got around solely on DART for five or so years last decade. And that was in the suburbs. But, as soon as I got my own car, I never went back because transit is almost never competitive. If New York City's congestion and parking situation was identical to that of DFW or even just Dallas, then ridership of transit would be much lower.

I would love it if Texas' cities had the transit systems of Seoul or Tokyo, but that is only in a world where cost is not an issue.

[Meat Eater]

Does not upset me at all. I worked with quiet a number of ignoramuses. No harm done.

[supfromthesite]

Originally Posted by briskwheel

You're right that public transit won't work in Texas or in most of the US. It's because most places were built after cars were invented and weren't built with public transit, biking, or pedestrians walking in mind.

But anything can change and anything is possible.

$6/gal gas might encourage people to write to our elected officials and bring up public transit.

Where is this money for expanded public transportation going to come from? Seems like the lower and middle class will just get shafted even more.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by briskwheel

It would be nice to have some sort of public transportation now that gas prices are almost $5/gal.

Buy a Tesla

[briskwheel]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

Where is this money for expanded public transportation going to come from? Seems like the lower and middle class will just get shafted even more.

Probably from the same place the money for the roads comes from. A big chunk comes from the federal government. Lower class people don't pay many taxes anyways and could benefit the most from better public transportation.

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by briskwheel

Probably from the same place the money for the roads comes from. A big chunk comes from the federal government. Lower class people don't pay many taxes anyways and could benefit the most from better public transportation.

Everyone's expenses will go up to fund this. Everyone's. Biden is already wanting more in tax revenue. Texas is a huge state, and the cities are far apart and also have tons of suburban areas. Think about it.

[supfromthesite]

Lower class people pay all the same taxes the other classes do aside from income taxes... And some of them do still pay those.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by KathrynAragon

Everyone's expenses will go up to fund this. Everyone's. Biden is already wanting more in tax revenue. Texas is a huge state, and the cities are far apart and also have tons of suburban areas. Think about it.

Well, we kind of need more tax revenue because we can't stop spending. Its not just the Dems. Republicans LOVE them some big government and love spending. Its just on different stuff. Unpopular as it may seem, we need to either raise taxes on those who make more than $250K a year and corporate taxes or we need to cut spending drastically. The problem with the later is that our level of infrastructure and services we provide to the citizens is already quite subpar.

Id personally rather spend money for health care for the poor than an extra aircraft carrier or more corporate welfare, but that's just me. Some prefer the other way around.

[briskwheel]

Originally Posted by supfromthesite

Lower class people pay all the same taxes the other classes do aside from income taxes... And some of them do still pay those.

It's even worse for lower income people. Sales tax on items don't really affect middle class or upper class people too much but when you are on a budget, every penny counts.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by mirotek

I realize that this will probably upset some people, but oh well. I have lived in several states and all of them have pros and cons but Texas is a perfect example of a state that displays everything that's wrong with America.

The best part of Texas is that there are dozens of highways leading out of it for you to take. Buh bye!