Let's forget the standard arguments as to whether mass transit is a good idea or not, okay? Or at least, let's not have them here, 'cause they're having them all over the Internet, and really, they weren't that interesting to start with.
(Okay, okay, if you really want to know what I think about the economic arguments, go read this on Stephen Dutch's site. That's pretty much word-for-word what I think, and no, I'm not interested in arguing with people who don't understand what he's saying, either.)
But let's talk about something which I am puzzled about the absence of in these debates, seeing as the political philosophy of many mass-transit advocates tends to play up these things heavily: yeah, let's talk about semiotics and subtext and narratives and suchlike.
Let's think about mass transit:
Well, it's exactly that. It's mass. You're part of a giant blob of faceless commuter drones, and must conform, Conform, CONFORM to being pushed, planned, scheduled, coordinated, numbered, hurry up and wait on line to be picked up from a designated place and dropped off at a designated place, neither of them terribly convenient. Please select what you want from a limited menu of choices. And if you listen to a great many of its advocates, (a) you also have to live in the manner - "high density, mixed use" - they designate to make it work, and (b) it's all for the good of the collective.
Narrative: You're the third worker drone to the right in a Fritz Lang movie or a Kafka novel. Try not to show too much personality.
And then there's the automobile. And notwithstanding a traffic jam occasionally, the thing is about the automobile is that any time you feel like it, you can put some good driving music on, find a nice open stretch of highway, aim that sweet machine's nose at the horizon, open the throttle wide, and go wherever the hell you want, without having to plan, schedule, hesitate or seek any damn permissions from anybody.
That feeling you get when you do that? That would be sweet, mobile, unchallenged, giving-your-finger-to-would-be-central-planners, because-I-suddenly-feel-the-need-to-okay-pal, freedom.
And since a lot of us around here are still ornery and disinclined to play along with those who feel they're special enough to order everyone's lives for 'em, that's probably the biggest problem with trying to sell The Mass Transit Way here in the US, even if you fixed the economics of it.
