>So the real story is free transit led to massive economic growth which in turn led to increased car ownership.

How did you make a jump to that conclusion? Correlation doesn’t mean that it’s a sole reason (or even one of the reasons)

I think OP is saying that on some lighter note. On another lighter note, maybe people were finally able to reach their workplaces and productivity increased.

You make an interesting point that making transit free could have triggered economic growth.

This could be because making transit free reduces the underutilization of large mass transit systems.

> The lesson for planners and government here is

... the market will regulate everything. /s

What's clear is that you don't like cars, and you're willing to make people's lives worse to reduce the number of them.

For less dogmatic people, it may be useful to reflect on what else needs to be done to make public transit useful to more people, beyond the price.

Well yeah, obviously if your public transit is garbage and you make it free it doesn't magically become good. Broadly reaching public transit that comes every 5 minutes with timed transfers is what makes public transit good (though it should also be paid for by taxes).