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I agree with Al's Cajon Pass & Beyond MRR's posting regarding the challenges facing public transit in the United States.  It is a well thought out response. I have ridden public transit most of my life. I used it extensively in New York City, Hartford, Connecticut, Dallas, Texas, Melbourne Australia, and Washington, D.C. I still use it to get to and from the University of Texas in Austin where I am a continuing education student.   In addition to being a user, I was a citizen advisor to the Dallas Transit System and an active participant in the referendum campaign that helped bring about Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).   The biggest challenge faced by public transit (past, present, and future) is the automobile. It is convenient, dependable, and comfortable. It is the mode of transport favored by most Americans, who can afford it, for commuting, trips to the shopping center, entertainment outings, and family vacations. We can bemoan unfair subsidies for the car, conspiracies real and imagined to do in public transit, lack of public funding, etc. until the cows come home, but Americans are not going to give up their cars. To think otherwise is unrealistic. Some people appear to believe that the government should force people out of their cars. I disagree. In a democracy the majority of the people should decide what they want. Not some politician or government bureaucrat in Washington or the state capital. Having said that, it is equally important that the pricing mechanism for all modes of transport reflect their true cost at the purchase point, i.e. ticket counter, pump, etc. Unfortunately, under the current arrangements, tracing all of the subsidies and cross subsidies for each mode of transport is nearly impossible. And I am speaking as an accountant and former auditor with heaps of experience who has given it a go. It is a maddening exercise. Accordingly, most people have no idea how much their chosen mode of transport truly costs. If motorists saw the true cost of driving at the price point, i.e. the real cost of fuel, federal highways, state highways, county roads, local streets, traffic law enforcement, accident investigations, etc., many of the middle class may be more inclined to support and use public transit. But the upper middle class and wealthy people will never use it. I would be willing to bet that most of the people who post to this forum do not use transit on a regular basis. Or if they do it is probably a suburban commuter train, which does attract a different class of patrons. When the first segment of the DART light rail line was opened, a shindig was held at Dallas Union Station to celebrate its opening.  The mayor, members of the DART board, and dignitaries of all stripe were on hand to praise the opening of the line. I was impressed by the fact that not a single person on the dais was a regular user of public transit. Moreover, as it turns out, most of DART's executives drive to work.
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