>So, once again, please help me out by putting your views on Transit
>2000 in writing. If, in doing so, you feel compelled to submit your
>work to your local newspaper's editorial page, that would be
>wonderful as well. Should it be published we can quickly promote
>your work to the "Editorials" section of the Stop That Train site.
Many reasons have been advanced for why mass transit doesn't work, ranging from the fact that Americans like to live spread out to public employee unions that drain the system. But ultimately, there is one uber-reason: traditionally, mass transit has been built by governments. When central planners try to design people movers that people will actually move on, to specify where they do and on what schedule they run, they are inevitably just as successful at this job as at any other kind of central planning.
Here is how a libertarian might do mass transit. What single transportation asset do governments own that both critical in building a transit system and which cannot be obtained privately. Think about it - the routes themselves, that's what. Let the City of Phoenix lease air rights over its major streets to any entrepreneur willing to put up a people mover. Don't specify what technology or topology is used; let the transit builder take all the initiative and risks in specifying and setting up the system, and in return get any profits. All the city gets would be fixed lease payments on the space over given streets for a time certain. If anyone can find a transit technology that works, let then build and run it.