You have speed, cost, and safety to contend with.

Cars are faster (direct to destination), cheaper for some trips (even including maintenance), and about equal in safety; more accidents, but much fewer muggings.

So, want to boost public transit? Start beating cars in those categories.

• Speed - Making roads suck in order to prioritize public transit is a low blow and not giving this cause credibility. It’s stirred up a ton of animosity. Cities have adopted a “can’t win so let’s be a dick” strategy. But where this can beat cars is high speed rail. As a car guy, I really look forward to that! Whoa, I know.

• Cost - Make it all free. Seriously, it’s public infrastructure. Pay for it with taxes. Our county already spends $150+ million a year making streets suck for a miniscule minority. Dump that crap into busses and light rail and we got ourselves a functioning town. Hell, the Bay Area already earmarked $1.4 TRILLION with a T for the next 25 years.

• Safety - My female friends ALL have stories about public transport. They range from forced conversations, sexual comments, and even overhearing detaills of how the two men in the seat behind will attack her. Yeah, she drives everywhere now. Point is, safety has to be enforced and it hasn’t had a good track record here. Not to mention there is a huge public service campaign right now plastering busses with banners that say “Human trafficking happens here”.

facepalm

Yeah, that’s the message you want to send…

So public transport, pick 2 of 3 categories and do better than cars and you’ll attract riders. Oh, and stop being a jerk to everyone else pretty please with a cherry on top.