Transit is very heavily subsidized by taxes. In the US, the least money losing system is BART which covers 70%+ of it's operating (but not capital) expenses through fares.

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drunner 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The point is it should be free. Public roads are free.

	▲	what 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Sort of? The people using them (driving) pay significant gas taxes, plus parking permits, and other things.
	▲	metaphor 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Do you think that engineering, asphalt, machinery, and labor are bankrolled by charitable goodwill? Public roads are absolutely not free; you simply haven't thought hard enough about how the public indirectly pays for it.

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kxrm 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Transit is very heavily subsidized by taxes.

So are roads.

	▲	cyberax 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Nope. In my state 75-95% (depends on year) of _all_ road-related expenses (including capital projects!) is funded by user fees: https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-infrastructur... In comparison, transit is about 99% subsidized (when capital expenses are included) and about 90% subsidized just for the operational budget.

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nekusar 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

By Republican logic, public libraries "lose money". So do a lot of public services.

But it's not about some shitty private equitymoney extraction. And it's not lost money.

Public transit is already substandard to driving, and should be free. And it'd be a way to reduce congestion too. But no, it "loses money".

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what 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Can you name a country where public transit is free?

I think a better goal would be to not have to travel across the city for basic needs and services. Would reduce congestion even more.

	▲	mauvehaus 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The buses running along the I-91 corridor in VT/NH USA centered around White River Junction VT and Hanover/Lebanon NH have been free to ride since around Covid. And those are two transit agencies. Broadly: one serves north of Hanover, the other south.
	▲	SXX 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not a country, but it's free in Belgrade, Serbia for last two years. Due to weird goverbnment statistics and unaccounted expats officially it's 1.1M to 1.6M of people, but actually there likely well over 2M people living there. Public transport is pretty good there and it cost their budget $300M-$400M a year.