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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   16856 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 19, 2026

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Public transport should be more systemically efficient (1 engine for 40 rather than 40 engines for 40: economies of scale)

It isn't, though. Because it turns out average number of riders on a bus is not 40 but 9.

The reason isn't a failure of public transport but a failure of Americans. Get rid of the lowlifes shooting up in train stations or pushing random people onto the tracks and then you can have an efficient public transport system. Normal people don't want to be around these net-negatives and will move out to the suburbs, segregate themselves away in cars because they, quite reasonably, don't trust others.

"Teens menace boy with machete and pepper spray on Queens bus" https://youtube.com/watch?v=qalXSOLvEAU

Why would you want to take a bus if this is what you might get?

Americans don't like to live in anthills where public transit can theoretically be efficient. That's not a failing of Americans.

No, Americans do like to live in cities like all settled peoples. Americans invented the skyscraper!

Until recently the US had dense and highly developed urban centres. Americans failing to defend and preserve their city centres is a serious failure.

Source for inflammatory claim

Average occupancies have declined as ridership has fallen faster than agencies have reduced service. In 1991, the average transit motor bus carried 11.0 people; by 2019, buses were no smaller yet they averaged just 8.0 riders. Trolley buses do a little better because they tend to serve mainly dense inner cities, but their average occupancies still dropped from 14.8 in 1991 to 12.8 in 2019.

The differences between cities are much larger than the changes over time. Honolulu, New York, and San Francisco motor buses carry an average of 17 riders. At the other end of the scale, Ft. Worth transit buses carry less than 4 riders, and buses in Columbus, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Salt Lake City average just 5. Honolulu, New York, and San Francisco are denser cities, of course, but the real problem is that transit agencies want to collect tax revenue from as many suburbs as possible and therefore become obligated to serve those suburbs even though most of the residents have two or three cars in every driveway.

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