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LostYonder wrote

My first reaction to this question was, like a few others, make it free. But on reflection, it is more complicated than that. Any public service comes out of a state apparatus to collect funds, construct and organize transportation systems, and ultimately to regulate those systems. Further, transportation systems predominately serve the interests of capital - to move laborers from home to work and consumers to places of consumption. There are other uses, but the driving force of transportation is capitalism.

Destroying it is unfortunately also not a solution. Most of our cities and towns, particularly in the US but increasingly everywhere, are constructed for cars. Our cities are predicated on unequal transportation options and destroying public transportation will impact poor and marginal classes most dramatically.

In short, we have created a dependency on public transportation. The issue is reorienting it away from moving laborers and consumers to fostering inter- and intra-communal connections, for creating paths of exploration and appreciation of diverse places in the larger communities in which we live. It needs to be retooled away from its capitalist and statist foundations and ultimately fade away when those structures are destroyed (sounds like a vaguely familiar argument, I know)...

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