this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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Wouldn't drivers also want free transit so there's less traffic?
I've tried this argument with them, it doesn't work. They just shift focus to "Waste of our money", which of course is then "What about roads", and then they go back to "But people use roads", "But people use transit too". They'll just point to the next thing fox news has taught them.
They've already decided those who disagree with them are below them. The people who use transit aren't people in their minds, not truly. Second class citizens at best, untermenschen at worst.
I've frequently broken peoples brains when they're arguing against transit and they use that. "Only poor people use transit". I ride transit, and I make a decent living in tech. They then either make a really lame attempt at a joke like "You must not be doing that well" then or stumble and mutter and change the subject. Can't have anything that challenges their worldview right?
They're not thinking with facts they're thinking with feelings.
I don't know if it's unique to the US, but there's a perception that "progress" is a farce that never helps as much as politicians claim. I personally think it's because we've got such a long history of means-testing welfare to such a ridiculous extent, like we kick people off disability if they have more than $2k in the bank, that "free bus for everybody" just sounds like a scam, too good to be true.
Not really - they are paying a lot for their car and want transit riders to take more of the share of the transit costs. If they gain more from free transit than they cost is a complex subject.
They may also understand that transit is expensive and for most the cost of transit isn't why they wouldn't ride in the first place and so free transit won't make much a difference. Meanwhile charging for transit and also giving transit the money that free transit would cost would give enough money that better service could be provided and poor service (for the individual trip) is why most people don't ride transit. (though NYC transit spends far more on better service than it should so who knows)