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Comment by kazinator | Hacker News Reader

People love to hate public transit, and will click on any headline that promises to fuel their sentiment.

In particular, people who commute using single-occupancy vehicles are happy to read anything which externalizes and validates their views about the viability of transit.

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Can't you just use the same logic to make the opposite point?

"In particular, people who commute using public transit are happy to read anything which externalizes and validates their views about the viability of single-occupancy vehicles."

In general, it's not constructive to make arguments based on questioning the motivations of people you disagree with. I try to always assume rationality and good faith on the part of everyone, even when they appear to be brainwashed or just plain crazy from a distance. Trying to figure out why people might be irrationally disagreeing with you is a lot less useful than trying to figure out why people are rationally disagreeing with you, even when they are being irrational (because aren't we all, in one way or another?).

I don't know, with that kind of thinking your inevitably going to question your own rationale for believing what you do. And who knows where that could go.

This is very much an American thing to hate public transport though. Places in Europe, especially Switzerland for example, have much better infrastructure and taking a car can be a pain compared to a train which is faster and a lot more comfortable.

Denying the problems with mass transit in America that lead most Americans to prefer single occupancy vehicles is not the way to get more people using public transit.

Mass transit has problems that lead me to prefer that single occupancy vehicle known as a bicycle. Even in the snow.

I don't hate it, but I do question if it is the best use of funds. The U.S. doesn't have the density required to support the transit systems we have built. Fare box revenue only covers 44% of operating costs in Boston; in Austin, the CMTA only covers 12.4%. And operating costs do not include the cost of capital, which must be massive [ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farebox_recovery_ratio].

-- Edit 's/costs do not cover/costs do not include/'

Do gas taxes cover the costs of road repairs and all other government spending that benefits car owners? Hell, even parking isn't self-supporting, why should transit fares cover all operating costs?

Wow, they sure don't. In fact, nationwide gas tax and tolls cover about 32% of highway costs. [http://taxfoundation.org/article/gasoline-taxes-and-tolls-pa...]

(But that just says to me our gas taxes should be higher. :)

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