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Well let's see the 3.9 mile Las Vegas monorail is the only privately owned public transportation system in the United States. A one way ticket on the monorail is $5 yet even at that price the company filed for bankruptcy in January of this year. So much for private companies being able to make transit profitable.
It didn't go anywhere ppl wanted to go , so of course it failed. The Delhi Metro is on of the world's only subways that runs on profit , they do that by allowing movies and TV shows to be shot in the stations on the lines. If the entire DC metro and NYC subway were overhauled , they would require any subsides...
If public transit was free it might get overwhelmed by people who don't really have much use for it but will take it since since it's free. For the people who are willing to pay, they will find an unplesant, overcrowded system. Of course, the point of a public transit system is that people use it so the fares are kept relatively cheap.
I am not for public roads either, people. Privatize everything. I am tired of paying for the mobility of others.
Public transportation serves such a small segment of society that it really doesn't make sense to try to push this on people. Public transportaation is dead.
We need more private toll road and private transportation agencies. This would help us get back on financial track!
I am not for public roads either, people. Privatize everything. I am tired of paying for the mobility of others.
Public transportation serves such a small segment of society that it really doesn't make sense to try to push this on people. Public transportaation is dead.
We need more private toll road and private transportation agencies. This would help us get back on financial track!
Actually in the Northeastern part of the USA, public transit is very important.
For example in NYC, many NYers don't own cars (even if they can afford them) and only use public transportation. So public transportation is certainly not dead.
Hey, I'm all for privatizing highways--make people pay a fee for their commute directly whenever they get on an on-ramp. You'd see a very rapid mode shift away from the highways, suburbs and exoburbs that were not near workplaces would start to die off without their subsidy. Privatized public transit systems would especially flourish if they could again be combined with things like electric utilities: many streetcar systems were owned by electric companies, who could use the same power distribution network that powered the streetcars to deliver electricity to people's homes. Often they were also real estate companies who sold the houses, the electricity and the ride to work.
We could toll every highway like Japan does , and slowly privatize the Railway network which would make things better. But it has to be done right , people are going to be against it since its going to cost them more. But in the long run , the roads will be better and the Railway network will be huge.
Actually it would end up costing them less in the long run--ending the subsidies that make suburbs possible frees up a lot of money that can be spent in other ways, or just lower people's taxes--and since some of those subsidies are in the forms of things like tax write-offs (like mortgage interest deductions) you'll need to lower taxes to balance the increased direct expenses.
nei: Local roads are paid for by taxes too. Privatization of those roads would be a little more difficult, and it would probably be simpler to leave those in the public domain--otherwise you would have to have a GPS or something in any vehicle that used those roadways to track usage for billing.
Wow, some people need to get a little history lesson. In the Early 1900s, most American cities had extensive public transportation systems, mostly streetcars. The car was only for the extremely wealthy in society, and only 1 in 10 people owned a car. So, starting in the 20s, General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum began to fund National City Lines, a company that bought streetcar lines in major cities. After World War 2, the company owned 100 different systems in 45 different cities. Even though 88 percent of the public favored expansion of mass transit, NCL began to rapidly dismantle streetcar lines and replace them with buses made by GM, and these buses weren't exactly the nicest of buses either, leading many people to desire cars. Simultaneously, GM began to use its government influence to fund massive highways across the country, such as the 25 billion dollar Federal Highway Act of 1956. Oh but don't worry, the government caught on and in 1951 the companies were convicted of Conspiring to Create a Monopoly. The Penalty? Each company was fined 5000$ and each executive was fined 1$. So, these private companies with their own selfish interests successfully destroyed our public transit.
Seriously, why on earth isn't public transit totally free?
Great idea, i'm all for it, but then you'd have all the whiners complaining that their taxes are paying for a transportation system they never use.
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