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   Floaty Birb (floatybirb@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:52:45 JST Floaty Birb

   • Thomas 🔭🕹️

   @thomasfuchs I think I agree, but it's already hard enough agitating for public transit to exist (at least in North America).

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     Floaty Birb (floatybirb@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:52:44 JST Floaty Birb

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • Glen, waiting for the pre-poll

     @glent @thomasfuchs I am thinking more in terms of someone trying to get more and better public transport where I live, where transit agencies are always given low priority and run in fear of fiscal deficits.

     Like, I could pressure them to cut bus and train fares to zero, but I think that would be extremely hard to convince them to do (when it's enough work trying to get cities and states to keep their agencies alive, let alone expand bus and train routes).

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     Glen, waiting for the pre-poll (glent@aus.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 11:52:45 JST Glen, waiting for the pre-poll

     in reply to

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️

     @floatybirb @thomasfuchs Having travelled a bit, maybe it's more important for public transport to be free if the society has no culture of public transport.

     Japan's trains and buses can be private because people will catch them anyways. It's more convenient than owning a car most of the time. For a start, you've got to prove you have off-road parking for the car.

     But in the US public transport has to compete with cars -- who don't pay for their externalities from parking to CO2 emissions. Reducing those externalities alone covers the provision of public transport from an economic point of view, the question is one of finance.