Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 20 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car

That captures the mindset of the progressives so well! Thanks for posting that.

"hate-filled scumbag southern Baptists"

What kind of hate-filled scumbag are you?

Tragedy of the Commons....

Like how most Canadians regard themselves as "middleclass" whether on social assistance or commuting in their Escalade.

"hate-filled scumbag southern Baptists".... ...what scumbags call "good ole boys"..

"People fear the unfamiliar."

It's in the DNA....strangers are usually enemies....

It's like this:

What they doan unner'stan they fear...
What they fear they hate...

City folk think rurals are savages...rural folk know city folk are savages...

"hate-filled scumbag southern Baptists"

No that is scumbag Northern Baptists

The failed policies of the mental midgets of the past will always result in an insane analysis by today's academia....

The Civil war was, in part, fought over black LABOR... The Buying & Selling of Human being is and was deemed a disgusting practice.

The Buying & Selling is what was disgusting, not the actual Labor

The North had the need for industrialized labor, the South had a huge Cotton market & black slaves.... The result was "some" freed slaves moved North & worked for the Northern States....

We now have the majority of failed Cities in the Northern States Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, every "Past" major industrialized city has disadvantaged blacks.... The Marxist organizations look South & can't explain why the South does not have these failed Cities...Why ? It must be this Flag the represents Valor, Honor and a Southern Work ethic...

The practice of "Indentured" labor has always been involved in the immigration of NA... The Irish, Scottish, English came to Canada & the USA Colonies and worked off their debt. The term "Freemen" is not a Hollywood invention...Slavery was not just a Black issue, but most races have moved beyond that part of their past. The race baiters don't!

The remnants of "Indentured" labor is found today practiced by the NFL... They have a Slavery exception that allows them to buy & sell Black & White players

Yop, are you sure that quote is from Orwell? I honestly thought that Obama had made that speech.

You're kind of missing the point.

Public roads are common property shared by many people.

Each of these people has his or her own interest in mind — typically, how to get to work as quickly and easily as possible.

But when everyone decides that the best way to meet their traveling needs on these roads is to drive, the roads jam up and slow down overall traffic movement, filling the air with pollutants from idling cars.

S it's not transit users who are causing congestion. One bus load of passengers can equal 50 cars off of the road. It's worthwhile to support public transit with taxes, because it gets more people out of their cars, thereby reducing congestion and pollution. It also serves to make communities much more walkable and people-friendly.

But all of this may be moot in 30 years anyway. Most people probably won't own their own cars. Instead, they'll opt to order up an autonomous car when they need one. Car ownership and transit's days both might be numbered.

"Public roads are common property shared by many people."

And paid for by those people, through their fuel (and other) taxes.

Each of these people has his or her own interest in mind — typically, how to get to work as quickly and easily as possible.

No dispute there, other than "work" is not necessarily the only valid destination. But no matter.

But when everyone decides that the best way to meet their traveling needs on these roads is to drive, the roads jam up and slow down overall traffic movement, filling the air with pollutants from idling cars.

Given that, even with the existing traffic congestion, for many, many people, using one's own automobile is faster, more convenient, and cheaper than taking transit, and therefore objectively better, is that any surprise? Transit systems usually work well to get people from outlying neighbourhoods into the downtown core, especially for those lucky enough to live a short walk from a major bus route. I have a friend in Calgary who lives right near a transit route, and he uses transit to get downtown quite frequently. But it's still slower than a car, because the bus stops every block or so to take on passengers, whereas your car doesn't. You can drive at the speed traffic permits. The real wildcard is the cost of parking downtown, which in Calgary, is one of the highest on the continent. There might be a reason for that, eh? Like "supply management" of parking by the socialists in Shitty Hall? And, by the way, modern cars emit next to nothing in the way of noxious pollutants.

S it's not transit users who are causing congestion. One bus load of passengers can equal 50 cars off of the road. It's worthwhile to support public transit with taxes, because it gets more people out of their cars, thereby reducing congestion and pollution. It also serves to make communities much more walkable and people-friendly.

There's no question that buses cause traffic congestion. Just get behind one, and see for yourself (if you can see through that cloud of Diesel soot). Between bad management, poorly planned transit stops, and don't-give-a-shit union drivers, they manage to slow everybody down, including their passengers.

But all of this may be moot in 30 years anyway. Most people probably won't own their own cars. Instead, they'll opt to order up an autonomous car when they need one. Car ownership and transit's days both might be numbered.

You might be right on that. Frankly, I'd get rid of all the buses, and go to a very laissez-faire system of jitney cabs or an expanded Uber arrangement. Let any car driver take on a paying passenger who flags him or her down (or not, if the would-be passenger looks skeevy). You could have a system of coloured flags, corresponding to zones in the city. It just might work, and it wouldn't take any vast expenditure of taxpayer dollars to try it out.

“S it's not transit users who are causing congestion. “
Yes they are, plus the congestion is a result of poor urban planning and forcing cities around a single core. Let them choke and local centers will sprawl.
“One bus load of passengers can equal 50 cars off of the road.”
That is exactly the problem. We do not need to get cars off the road, we need decentralization, and your ilk is forcing congestion against reason for the last few decades making cities more and more centralized and harder to get to. Add to this wasted space for greenbelts, bus lanes, bike lanes etc.
“ It's worthwhile to support public transit with taxes,”
Not it is not. Pay it out of your own pocket. Let private, for profit companies operate buss lines. Never subsidize.
“ because it gets more people out of their cars,”
And the is a bad thing ...
“ thereby”
…making people even more dependent on the state and the unionized goons operating the transit.
“ reducing congestion”
Again poor urban planning. Get bikes and buses off the road, make more roads and more parking spaces.
“and pollution.”
Pollution is a non-issue today despite you retards ruining city after city.
“ It also serves to make communities much more walkable “
And that is a bad thing.
“and people-friendly.”
Say it to my face after herding me on a bus and you will see how friendly I will be.

Good post. I need to add that city planners design road nets to cause, on purpose, traffic jams, and minimize downtown parking for private vehicles(thus creating a premium on parking spaces) with the intent to dissuade citizens from using private vehicles and persuade them to use mass transit.

These same 'planners' still use private cars to commute to work, only arrive at work after rush hour, and then park their vehicles at zero expense in city downtown cores in reserved civic government parking lots, built with tax dollars of citizens they are supposed to be serving, while attempting to force these taxpaying citizens to live at a lower standard of convenience at greater expense than they themselves live.