[DanielStraight]

No, I live in a city with woefully inadequate public transportation, and I drive everywhere I go.

But, I lived in Germany for 5 months and only rode in a car 2 or 3 times, and Germany doesn't even have the best public transportation in the world.

Public transportation will require a lot of tax money, but roads require a lot of tax money too.

[gaius]

On the other hand, cars raise a lot of tax revenue. There's a 400% tax on petrol in the UK. 80p out of every pound spent on petrol is pure revenue for the govt. And people hate the oil companies if the price of a gallon goes up by 1p...

[DanielStraight]

That alone doesn't tell us anything though.

Public transportation tends to be much cheaper for riders than private transportation is for drivers. A year-long ticket for Munich is around $1000. At current prices, that won't even buy you 10k miles worth of gas in a compact car, to say nothing of the price of the car itself, insurance and repairs.

I say that to say this, if people have more money in their pocket, they will tend to spend more money, so the difference could easily be made up in sales tax on all the newly-freed-up disposable income.

[gaius]

Annually my train season ticket costs just over half what my mortgage costs! And I'm talking repayment not endowment here. So while public transport may be convenient, it's certainly not cheap here in England.

[dominastrum]

The Atlantic has a post somewhat on this, slowing how transit-centric behavior can lead to more disposable income:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/the-fina...

[protomyth]

> Public transportation will require a lot of tax money, but roads require a lot of tax money too.

On a cost basis, public transportation is more expensive and less versatile than roadways.

// no bus stop within 90 miles of where I am and the flooding is seriously problematic for rail

[eru]

Public transport plus a bike covers you pretty well there, if you live in a city.