[BobbyTables2]

There are probably some savings in externalities not accounted for as well.

Seems to me mass transit could reduce road maintenance costs, parking infrastructure, and such. Not to mention reduction in pollution and increase in desirability.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to “capture” those savings explicitly. So it ends up looking like a taxpayer funded charity program…

[inigyou]

I can't remember what the paradox is called but it has a name - in any big city, public transit sets the speed of car traffic. Cars always go at the same speed as public transit, door-to-door. If you want to eliminate traffic jams, improve the metro.

[xp84]

Makes perfect sense -

If transit is slower than cars, people will be willing to pile into the car for an incremental trip, and this will continue congesting the roads until the times (including parking of course) are within the margin of error. If transit is faster, it puts similar downward pressure on the drivers, who will try to find a way to shift trips to transit when possible, to save time, decongesting the roads.