[so33]

>Fixed-route 19th-20th century public transportation networks are inefficient because most of the vehicles are pretty empty most of the time. This makes these systems expensive on a passenger-per-seat-mile basis. Not to mention the colossal waste of people's time spent trying to accommodate their journeys to those fixed routes

You know what else sits empty most of the time? Highways.

Ok, I was being snarky. Couldn’t resist. Snark aside, this is not an insurmountable problem with public transit. The Vancouver SkyTrain operates on the assumption that frequent, automated, short trains are better than longer less frequent ones. Headways are about 90 seconds during peak commute hours and scale with demand.

> Example: LA's Metro system is subsidized to the tune of about 50 cents per passenger seat/mile, or was as of 2009

Hong Kong’s turns a profit. And who said transit systems have to turn a profit anyway? Just like our roads, they are provided for public benefit.

A large amount of transit money is spent building, operating and maintaining a dedicated transit right of way, needed to make any sort of rapid transit work.