See link: Politics Daily: Conservatives and mass transit, or why so many conservatives do not like mass transit and rail.
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Exerpt:
"Effete liberals love mass transit and red-blooded American conservatives disdain it, right?That's the stereotype, all right. Libs love their commuter trains, while we conservatives dig our pickup trucks. There's surely something to those images, but a new book titled, "Moving Minds; Conservatives and Public Transportation," seeks to lead some 21st century conservatives to rethink their view of riding the subway."
"For starters, their book seeks to shape conservatives' views on mass transit by pointing out that our current system is anything but the product of free market forces.
Since the invention of the Model T, the U.S. government has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the highway system, while mass transit (which historically had been privately owned) received vastly smaller infrastructure benefits -- while being taxed heavily to boot. What's more, the government simultaneously prohibited these mass transit companies from raising fares.
Privately owned mass transit companies simply could not compete when they had to build and maintain infrastructure while their competition was funded by tax dollars. In addition, the authors note that post-World War II building codes in many areas created sprawl – a situation where homeowners cannot walk to work or to shop, and thus, must rely on an automobile. The authors present numerous and convincing arguments in favor of mass transit."
"The book also challenges . . . the notion that trains often have empty seats. Most cars on the road during rush hours have three empty seats."
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