More on transit from Alon Levy

This is Joseph

This tweet thread by Alon Levy is worth reading in full.  In particular:

Tech has been extremely successfully in solving a specific class of problems.

That said, the real issue is that US transit has some serious limitations and challenges.  Alon goes on to talk about how both New York and DC have let their transit system degrade.  Trying to limit transit expansions and improvements may work on the margin, but the ultimate issue is that roads (or air-lanes or whatever) need to be regulated as public goods. That makes every transit discussion inherently political.

I also want to highlight Matt Yglesias' response:

I think that this take is right on.  Paradigm changing is all well and good but it does make sense to build on the firmest foundation of best practice for transit.