appreciate you being transparent with your disclaimer.
Living in the big city is not a frog boiling operation. These rules are pretty simple: cars are silly in dense environments. It's in the first paragraph.
"... charge private vehicles..."
Living in the big city is not a frog boiling operation. These rules are pretty simple: cars are silly in dense environments. It's in the first paragraph.
"... charge private vehicles..."
Note: I am not a car freak. I'm a solarpunk guy, I'd rather have Futurama style tubes, or VTOL vehicles anytime!
But paying for horrendous traffic jams clearly shows to me that public transport isn't up to snuff.
There is a question there about should the people already there have to accomodate people who want to live elsewhere and still enjoy the ammenity of the big city.
I personally err on the side of the people who live in the suburbs shouldn't dictate the built form to the people who live in the city.
It is admittedly an awkward to do a proper 'transition' from cars in less dense areas to transit stations. in ways that parking lots and garages alone leave some problems.
Nobody from NYC visits rural Idaho expecting a 24/7 subway system to be provided for them.
People take transit method A if it's better than transit method B no matter how shitty A is in absolute terms. And the US has invested 50 years into car infrastructure so it's pretty good actually. For example, Tokyo has a famously good public transit system and 70 minute one way commute time on average. NYC is half that.
Edge cases and laziness. For two thirds of my trips, I can and do take public transportation. For the remaining third, I'm some combination of lazy, needing to maintain a phone call or going between points inadequately served by public transit.
I was in NYC yesterday. I had a somewhat heavy carryon and had to deal with a few too many staircases. I could not determine where the elevators and escalators were easily. I am sure that information exists, but countless subway stations are inaccessible. Buses are far more accessible.
If they need to drive in that badly to the only city in the US with a world class public transport system then they can pay for it.