Should public transit be government funded?

[Matt]

As I'm sitting on the bus right now it made me think of this question, what do you think? Many people use public transit regularly and it gets expensive. Where I am it's $2.65 for one bus fare. ( cheaper if you buy tickets or passes though )

Yes I understand it would be just another expense for the government but it would be quite a positive change I think.

[steel bat]

I already spend quite a tidy sum every year keeping my car on the road, so um, no.

[Emerald]

For people on lower wages perhaps public transport should be free. I seldom use buses or trains I drive everywhere.

[Matt]

Jul 2, 2016 4:53:56 GMT -6 Emerald said:

For people on lower wages perhaps public transport should be free. I seldom use buses or trains I drive everywhere.

I agree with that. Taking the bus is now quite expensive actually.

[Vincent Van Ghoul]

Should it be? Yeah that'd be awesome. Can it? For most countries, hell no.

It's just such an enormous expense, for all but the strongest, most stable economies I think it'd cost far too much for a government, on top of stuff like healthcare, education, defense, debts etc.
In my mind, i imagine a country like Japan could pull it off in some capacity, both due to the economy, but also their attitude towards work and public transportation. For a nation like the US, it'd cost too much, and probably not be very good either.

But for smaller countries, it could be doable. The Faroe Islands for example (a small island group part of the Kingdom of Denmark) do have free public transportation in the form of buses. The islands are too small and rugged for trains, and only about 50,000 people live there.

Jul 1, 2016 15:10:29 GMT -6 steel bat said:

I already spend quite a tidy sum every year keeping my car on the road, so um, no.

I'm sorry I don't follow your reasoning here. Public transportation shouldn't be government funded, because you spend money on your car?

[steel bat]

Oct 13, 2015 3:51:10 GMT -6 Vincent Van Ghoul said:

[abbr data-timestamp="1467407429000" title="Fri Jul 01 2016 22:10:29 GMT+0100 (GMT Standard Time)" class="time recent_time"]23 hours ago[/abbr] steel bat said:

I already spend quite a tidy sum every year keeping my car on the road, so um, no.

I'm sorry I don't follow your reasoning here. Public transportation shouldn't be government funded, because you spend money on your car?

Well, I think we all can agree that if something is government funded then they don't just pull that money out of the air, they get it by taxation.
It surely follows then that if the government is going to provide free (at point of use) transport then they are going to have to massively increase taxation to pay for it.
And the most likely taxes to be increased are those already related to transportation - that is those paid by the private motorist.

And so to expand on my above reply -With the Road Fund License (car tax), petrol tax, the tax surcharge on insurance premiums, plus VAT on that lot, then plus the VAT added on to repair and servicing bills, No, I do not wish to pay even more taxes for transportation services that I never use.

[Emerald]

I wouldn't mind people on a low wage getting the benefit of free transport from taxes I pay.

[Matt]

Jul 3, 2016 5:09:52 GMT -6 Emerald said:

I wouldn't mind people on a low wage getting the benefit of free transport from taxes I pay.

Agreed

[toetapping]

In Australia all I know is pensioners if they get on the bus between 9.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m. it is free.

I don't use it as we drive everywhere.