>>1418766Actually trolleys were generating a profit alongside automobiles when the streetcar companies were allowed to sell their power back to the grid. After an extensive series of programs designed to subsidize cars and dismantle trolley networks, trolleys finally subsided.
And anyway, they don’t need to turn a profit; that’s the crux of urbanism and the point so many people miss. Our highway system costs us over $400 billion a year and no one asks them to turn a profit, but suddenly those same boondoggle lovers will ask buses to turn a profit. At least till the highways so they earn some money back (because the gas tax isn’t nearly enough to cover the massive expenses incurred by highways).
Meanwhile there are private rail companies who want to operate and they’re not even allowed to because the Republicans block them.
Mid-rise mixed-use buildings over compact streets is the most feasible pattern of development, that’s why humans have naturally built it for so long in so many places.
Zoning and planning creates car-dependency because it’s designed to.
