> I'd gladly pay twice as much for it to be better.
Some other comments mentioned classism, and anti-social passengers, but a less emotionally charged way of framing it is just in terms of price discrimination.
Busses and subways have no "first class" or "business class" section. The passengers who would pay double or triple are doing so in their car payments, insurance, and gasoline, and riding in relative comfort, and the people left riding the bus are mostly those who aren't willing to pay more.
It's going to be difficult to get people to put their car payments toward better bussing, while still keeping it accessible to those who want to pay less.
> Busses and subways have no "first class" or "business class" section.
It depends. New York City has "express buses" that are basically long-distance buses repurposed for commuting. You pay an additional fare and are more comfortable. Commuter trains are of course more comfortable than subway trains. (This is why I usually fly out of JFK. Taking LIRR to the airport is much nicer than taking the bus to LGA.)
Japan's rail systems have higher-tier options on some route. JR has "home liners" that are long-distance passenger trains basically repurposed for commuters (actually very similar to the default commuter train in the US, whereas the normal commuter trains are very similar to metros). Tobu has the "TJ Liner" which is similar. The demand does exist.
I think the reality is that public transportation is too popular to reduce capacity by having more seating. Everyone in NYC would pay for a more comfortable subway, but there wouldn't be enough trains to carry them all. The completely-packed-at-rush-hour is a byproduct of the fact that cars just aren't faster in NYC, so you might as well pay $2.50 to get home faster but in less comfort. (I've looked into it. There were many times when I was running late and thought, "maybe I'll just take an Uber to work today". But the delayed subway would take 20 minutes and the private car would take 30 because of traffic. It only made a difference in the middle of the night when the subway was running on 30 minute headways and there was no traffic. Even then, still close to 20 minutes to drive. The subway is just that efficient, despite everyone's complaints.)
Yeah I think this is the main challenge - you can have private buses are that are comfortable and provide a net positive over driving yourself. These exist in the bay area (FB, Google, Apple all do this) but then they're not public transport.
Right, which is why public transport should be funded via taxation.
The way to achieve a reasonable service is actually to tax driving at a higher rate (to account for the externalities; pollution, congestion etc) and put the funds into infrastructure like buses/trains.
I often drive because it's more efficient and comfortable than using the bus. It's more efficient and comfortable than using the bus because the externalities are not priced in.
We can address that balance by taxing cars higher and putting on more buses / paying for more cleaners, etc.
Some other comments mentioned classism, and anti-social passengers, but a less emotionally charged way of framing it is just in terms of price discrimination.
Busses and subways have no "first class" or "business class" section. The passengers who would pay double or triple are doing so in their car payments, insurance, and gasoline, and riding in relative comfort, and the people left riding the bus are mostly those who aren't willing to pay more.
It's going to be difficult to get people to put their car payments toward better bussing, while still keeping it accessible to those who want to pay less.