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Public Transit Ridership in the United States

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[quote user="schlimm"] Most of the Metra commuters are not earning $500k annually.  Many suburbanites who ride the trains to Chicago are solidly middle class.  They can afford a car or two and probably a house or condo.  Some rent.  Most of the folks over 30 live in the suburbs because they have a family and prefer their kids attend the suburban schools, which are much better than in the city.  Driving to the Loop is terrible because of traffic, long in duration, and very expensive for parking.  The Metra train isn't cheap, either.  And the fare is going up again soon.   You choose to conveniently ignore the information I posted from Metra.  "Metra carries approximately 50% of the trips to downtown in each of the major expressway corridors.  It would take 29 lanes of expressways to accommodate those Metra riders."  And adding that many lanes to the expressways would not just be prohibitively expensive, it would be impossible. People here like Metra and taxpayers aren't up in arms about paying a sales tax for a service they seldom or never use.  Perhaps that is because the notion of a shared providing of services as a community is widely accepted.  Ditto with paying enormous amounts in property taxes that are primarily for schools here.   Many folks pay a great deal even with no kids in school but we accept it for the greater good.  You seem to want something akin to a need-based commuter ticket, which sounds loaded with administrative problems.  Perhaps you favor services entirely paid for by user-fees.   I have no idea.  But don't knock publicly subsidized mass transit and commuter rail in places outside TX (such as those with a long history: Chicago, NY, Phil, Boston, and the new services in cities like LA, SF, denver, etc.) where the residents seem quite happy. [/quote] If they can afford a car or two, how come they could not afford to pay the cost of their commuter train ride to downtown Chicago or downtown USA. For decades commuters from Long Island, Main Line Philadelphia, etc. rode on commuter trains hosted by private railroads.  They were not subsidized by the people.  That all changed in the 60s and 70s for a variety of reasons.   My point is simple. Even in large cities, such as Chicago, Philadelphia, etc., the majority of people do not use public transit.  And the APTA numbers show it clearly. I did not ignore your Metra information.  I read the quick facts as well as the financial statements. Commuter rail is different than intracity public transit.  I accept the argument for it.  But commuter rail is designed for a different population group.  And I suspect many if not most of the users could cover the cost out of the fare box with subsidies for low income people if required.
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