The airlines are critical to a big country like the US when our passenger rail networks are so slow, so the government supports it. They should also support bus networks etc. I suspect much of their road policy is designed to support Americans buying cars, the second biggest purchase next to a house that most people buy. It's very cynical.

How does this follow? If they're critical and highly subsidized, that implies the value that people get out of tickets is much higher than what they're paying, so people should be willing to pay much higher prices if subsidies are ended.

Regional airports are subsidized for good reason. Air ambulances, search and rescue, firefighting, disaster relief, and all sorts of public service work happens at regional airports. Nobody is sending organs for transplant via Greyhound. You’re not going to stage firefighting aircraft at SFO. You’re also not going to train student pilots at LAX.

Let’s not forget Watsonville California during the 1989 earthquake. https://youtu.be/qxCCcLUYP7Y?feature=shared

I used to fly disaster and public service relief flights — into Louisiana after a major hurricane — roads were flooded and impassible; but my Cessna T206 could get in bringing supplies — despite the New Orleans Airport being shut down for two days.

I’ve also flown countless Angel Flight missions, Pilots and Paws, and various support missions during the 2020 California wildfires. All using regional airports.

When governments stop paying for sports stadiums, sending money to pay for someone else’s wars, and subsidizing housing for people that are in the country illegally, EVs, and every other wasteful bit of government spending — then perhaps we might talk about regional airports.

The money the U.S. sent to Ukraine in just a single year could fund regional airports for decades. Eliminating waste fraud and abuse in the Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security system would fund regional airports for a lifetime.

I often take Amtrak from Portland to Seattle instead of flying. Theoretically it is a short flight vs a four hour train trip, but consider that the train station is centrally located on both ends, and you can enjoy the decadent spaciousness of even a coach seat on Amtrak, while breathing nice fresh sea level air the entire time, and Amtrak wins easily.

I generally have bad sleeps when I’m staying in a luxurious bed at the Marriott or Hyatt. I cannot imagine that spending a night in something called a sleeping pod would end in anything other than me being up all night unable to sleep.

It needs to be possible for people to use public transport to get around, including between smaller destinations, otherwise you’re just completely abandoning the population who can’t drive.

We have plenty of examples of populist idiocy. Many folks never fly - I’ve actually only ridden an airplane 8 times. But the overall benefit to society is compelling and beneficial to society.

Sports stadiums can be similar, but modern clubs want facilities who luxury features exceeds what the government should provide.

Oil is made over millions of years and we’re on track to deplete it in under 200 years. We’ll never completely deplete it because the oil that’s left will be uneconomical to extract, but that’s functionally the same thing.

Not great places unless you are into smoking crack with homeless people and getting threatened or stabbed by them.

Partly because the bus station opened up in the 50s and remains in the sketchiest part of the city. There was rarely any real motivation to move them.

I used to take the bus several times a year between LA and Carson City NV. A 12 hour bus ride that would take me from scenic downtown LA and eventually drop me off in Carson City at a closed bus station at 5 in the morning. The driver was able to sell tickets to folks that were just standing by the highway at designated stops in the middle of the desert on the way up. We used to stop in Mojave for dinner at the cafe next to the bus shack^H^H^H^H^Hstation. I'd pick up cool Space Shuttle on 747 postcards while I was there.

Overall the folks weren't too awful on that bus, but it surely made for a long night.

It's not the worst (i.e. a southern bus station), some parts of Chicago are the worst. It's just a god awful shitshow. I had a blast when I did it, yes there were crackheads, but you can make new friends with crackheads. There was a 'hood lady I made friends with and a sweet old foreigner grandma type visiting her kid... who didn't speak english.. so I helped her get there what with the 8 hour bus delay, which might be related to stations shutting down

If no one drives me, I will never go back.

That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it.

Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

A lot of them sound like: "Ick, I saw poor people, never again will I subject myself to that. I now restrict myself to modes of transport too expensive for those poors to use."

That’s a pretty high standard considering the behavior of highway drivers. How do you get around, friend?