For mass transit to work and not be a net drain it has to be survivable at a
market price.
Yep. In DC we have a world-class system, in some ways,
at a lowball price. Nice trains, which are SRO in the rush
hour, nice environmentally friendly buses, and low prices.
Yet the city is still jammed with inefficient private automobiles.
Somehow a bicyclist has to look at this picture and see a
basic failure in either the development model for the city or
else the civic mindedness of the people.
I rhink you can network all you like, but it goes nowhere if it
doesn't change attitudes.
Many cities have downtown areas where cars aren't permitted. In Hong
Kong, where there are few cars, public transport is cheap, goes
everywhere, and uses RFID passes. Not so cheap in London, but I've never
had to go anywhere in London that wasn't less than 1/2 mile of a bus or
tube. Same for Dublin, Paris, Athens, Barcelona, and most of NYC and Philly.
Gothenburg, Sweden is especially friendly for cyclists, with their own
traffic lanes and signals, along side train tracks and highways. The
hills are a killer though. I could take my bicycle on the trains in
Sweden [I've taken a bicycle on the NYC subway]. Some buses elsewhere
have bike racks.
The key word is PUBLIC transportation. Public transport benefits all,
whether or not you use it. I don't know of a good transportation system
that isn't subsidized, but there might be some. Assuming that mass
transit has to be private, existing on the whims of the marketplace is
naive. The free market fantasy is killing us with pollution and
bankruptcy. Should all roads be toll roads? Of course not. There has to
be a balance--and free WiFi with schedules.
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