I may be wrong as I’m basing this on 2* sources, but it seems like there is a stronger and more meaningful working class participation in politics in EU urban centers w good transportation. I have no idea about Japan. There’s less villainizing the public good; they also have healthcare.
Americans will be like ”I don’t want to take the train or buss, it’s dirty and inconvenient and crowded” and come to the conclusion that public transport is bad as a concept instead of realising that it’s just theirs that is bad.
Every time our (french) gov wants to slash a department, they first underfund it for a few years. "Do more with less", they say. People get more and more upset with the lack of quality of service, and that's when you can point to a private equivalent and say the public one is useless.
They keep trying to do it to the post office but don't fucking manage to realize that private industry can't even pretend to service the majority of the country
Also the practice of Republicans and conservatives in the US--underfund public education, the post office, etc., complain how bad they are, recommend privatization.
i will never get over my city funding & planning a subway, completing like 2+ miles of tunnel construction and then just bailing on the whole plan. oopsie!
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- US transportation policy since Eisenhower signed the Nation Interstate and Defense Highways Act in 1956