What North America can learn from the greatest transportation system in the world
www.theglobeandmail.com
Fifty years ago, Switzerland was poised to become as car-dependent as anywhere in North America. Now it has the best transit system in the world. What’s the secret to this alpine nation’s transport supremacy?

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This was a revelation. For just over $6,000 a year, the Swiss can travel anywhere, reliably, in comfort, and get where they’re going on time. (In neighbouring Austria, where the cost of living isn’t so high, the equivalent national rail pass costs just €1,100 – or $1,600.) In Canada and the United States, the average cost of car ownership – including payments, parking tickets, insurance, parking, and gas – is more than $12,000 a year. That’s a high price to pay for a system that delivers congestion, traffic deaths and injuries, air pollution – and, more often than not, gets us to work or school late. For half the price North Americans pay, the Swiss get reliable, anywhere-to-anywhere mobility.

  • Miles O'Brien@startrek.websiteEnglish
    411·
    5 days ago

    The secret is “not having politicians that bend over backwards for car companies for over a century while your country is still in development” and “having people in influential potitions or states that understand taxes aren’t inherently bad” with just a Powerpuff girls size dash of “the wealthy like to keep poor people in their place and poor public transit and education keep things that way”

    That’s why no amount of “it’s actually cheaper to do it the other way than you already pay and here’s 10,000 studies and real world examples all over the world that prove it” will convince the people who can change anything.

    They know.

    They simply like things they way they are.

    Hell, they kick the poor down a couple pegs where possible.