A lot of us aren't, actually. If I could trade in my car for a reliable public transportation system, it would have already been done. The 4.5 hour drive from my university city to my hometown is mind-numbing, and that's not even that bad. As for the answer why our transportation system remains as it is, Kyoto Kid gives a great history. From what I understand, the following also contribute:

1. The fear-mongering media has everyone from the right side of things up through many of the moderates fearing all things socialist to the point of hilarity or depression--depending on your outlook. That includes functioning public transportation.

2. Most of our government officials in the House and Senate are in the pockets of lobbyists and/or only concerned with getting elected next term, not actually governing. They're looking to make oodles and oodles of dollars, regardless of what happens to the rest of the country. This also results in any bill getting tied up for about forever, or never even putting on the pretense of going through committees.

3. Out of sight, out of mind mentality. The lower working class and university students often rely on trains to get where they need to go, at least around my campus. But, we're a blind spot in reality, you know.

4. People are lazy. They also resist change with amazing stubbornness.

Also this.

That's a bit of a skewed argument. Alot of people don't like public transit because they don't want to use it and don't want to pay for others to use it. With the main emphasis on paying for someone else to use it. I know I like driving my truck and have no desire to use public transit ever, heck I don't even like flying. About the only alternative I could go for is living in the Louisiana swamps and going everywhere by flatboat.

However, in heavily urbanized areas even the people not using public transit would somewhat benefit from it due to less congested roads and reduced pollution. If only the actual users were to pay for public transit, the non-users would enjoy a positive externality, i.e. getting a benefit without paying.

Of course, in more rural areas these benefits might be too small to merit the hassle of distributing the cost.

-- This is canonically addressed in Rigger 3 as well. See Rigger 3 , pp. 65-66 for a few notes on rail vehicles and trailers.


-- Multiply by 1.2 to get speed in kilometers per hour (0.75 for miles per hour).

...a good point.

If transit riders were required to cover the full cost, it would cease to exist because most who depend on it could not afford to ride it.

This was the reason that in the 1970s transit system management out of the hands of the the private operators. Fares were getting ridiculous while bus schedules were being reduced to maintain the bottom line.

The one misconception that many have about public transit is that federal funds pay for running the buses. They don't, and haven't since transit funding was changed during the Reagan administration. Today, Federal transit monies are only available for capital projects not daily operations. Operations are funded solely by various local taxes (usually those on business) and the farebox.

This is why, for example, the city of Portland OR where I live can open a new light rail line that ends at a shopping mall and build a new streetcar that goes to a museum while reducing basic bus service (that most commuters depend on) system-wide.

The list below is all of the long distance transports from Rigger 3 with a few real world items for comparison:
  120 kph – Locomotive, Express (Battery)
  126 kph – Locomotive, Express (Diesel)
  132 kph – Locomotive, Bulk (Diesel)
  150 kph – Zeppelin (Battery)
  300 kph – Zeppelin (Fuel Cell or Turboprop)
  324 kph – Locomotive, Bullet (Diesel)
  360 kph – Locomotive, Bullet (Fuel Cell or Jet)
  430 kph – Bugatti Veyron Super Sport
  580 kph – current fastest maglev
  600 kph – Airliner (Turboprop)
>600 kph – Seattle—SanFran maglev tube – based on a "two-hour" trip time
  900 kph – typical non-supersonic jet
1000 kph – speed of sound at typical cruising altitudes
1200 kph – Airliner (Jet) – since this is faster than sound it is probably a mistake in R3
1200 kph – speed of sound at sea level
1800 kph – Semiballistic (rocket-boosted) – seems way too slow, perhaps this is just the low-altitude speed
2400 kph – Suborbital (rocket-boosted) – seems way too slow, perhaps this is just the low-altitude speed
3840 kph – HSCT (jet) – almost Mach 4
4800 kph – hypothetical vactrains
6000 kph – Jet Fighter (Jet)

since this has people htinking 'trains' I thought I should add in something I'd been thinking of for a while. odds are in North America at leasttrains would become a lot more popular for travel around the continent. right now long travel in North America is by plane because the US, Canada and Mexico are relatively friendly but with the break away of the NAN in the GGD then CAS, Aztlan invasion and the reshuffling of borders and various scuffles, the skies are a lot less friendly.

It might be that trains become rather more encouraged because among other things, they are easier to track than aircraft and so are less likely to result in an 'oops' when crossing over potentially hostile teritory- anyone here remember flight 007, I believe it was JAL or Korean Air, that was 'mistakenly' shot down by the soviets in 1983?

So travelling by train my be the new 'in.'