There is a brilliant future ahead of us, sans public transportation.  There are heroic efforts being made today that will bring an end to the tyranny of so-called “public transportation”.

Can you see the bright light at the end of the $4.4 billion tunnel?

Yes, in one of countless examples (across the world) of wasteful government theft, the hapless taxpayers in NYC shelled out that amount for one single mile of subway line.  That’s right, one mile.  $70,000 per inch!

I dream of a different world, one where the massive burden of unbridled bureaucratic profligacy doesn’t yoke helpless tax-slaves, a world where no cumbersome public transports clog the roads, grind traffic to a halt at railway crossings, and where government cronies don’t become wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

Being a car owner, I have rarely had the desire to engage with public transportation in any of it’s malignant forms, but I do have experience with it regardless.

I live about a mile away from a light-rail station, as well as it’s heavy-rail counter-part.  I am all too aware of these stops, not because I frequent said modes of transportation, but because they are consistently slowing mine.

You may relate, as any time you come to a railway crossing the time required to give safe passage to a train can cause regular vehicular congestion.

And why trains of all things?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m fascinated by trains myself, but view little utility in this 1800’s mode of transportation now that we’re well into the 21st century.

Sure, trains are great for moving really heavy things across the country and I have no problem with freight trains, but then again, why should I?

Freight trains are a private business that I pay for when I purchase something to be shipped, or consume something that was shipped for local consumption.  Similar to trucking companies, these businesses must provide you some benefit in exchange for your voluntarily utilized money.

Public transportation is quite different.  This is not a voluntary transaction.  It is the government pointing a gun at your head in exchange for your (tax) dollars.

Unlike a business, bureaucrats don’t care about wasting money, they have no ownership and are at no risk of losing their own money.

More important to them is to purchase (with your money) the votes of their perceived constituents and to grease the pockets of those who donate to their campaigns (often the benefactors of government contracts for public transportation expenditures).

But what about the poor you may ask?

I lived for two years in the Dominican Republic, a developing country in the Caribbean, as a missionary for the LDS Church.  It was there where I encountered how impoverished people find transportation.

While the DR does have public transportation which I rode occasionally, called the OMSA (public buses), most of my experience finding inexpensive transportation was using Guaguas (private buses), publicos (private cars running specific routes), motoconchos (motorcylce taxis) and regular taxis (again private).

Living in various barrios of Santo Domingo and the Dominican countryside gave me the opportunity to travel as the locals did.

Public transporation was set to schedules that may or may not have been convenient to passengers, was of course subsidized with taxes, had only set stops, and while cheap to the end consumer, was hugely expensive to those paying taxes, and was by no means a final travel solution, as most still needed transportation to and from the distant bus stops.

The various private modes of transportation (while naturally having their own problems and risks) did a much better job of getting people to exactly where they needed to go.

This was done inexpensively without tax-payer subsidization; granted, that was a given as they were responding to market forces and consumer demand, rather than arbitrary bureaucracy.

Here in the United States and in much of the world, the last few years have witnessed the rise of companies such as Uber and Lyft.

Utilizing privately developed technology, these companies have obviated traditional taxis, and in many cases public transportation as well.

I rode in Uber just yesterday, as I had dropped off my car to have the tires and oil changed.  Realizing this would take several hours, I used a simple app to hail an Uber, and within less than 5 minutes had the ride I needed.

No need to walk a long distance to a bus stop, take the bus to the train, take the train to another bus, then walk from the final bus stop to my house.

Nope.  My Uber picked me up and drove me straight home.  I saved a ton of time, and didn’t cost tax-payers anything.  Also, it didn’t cost me much, far less than a traditional taxi.

This is just the beginning.

Tesla has been notably in the news regarding autonomous car technology, having something called “auto-pilot” on many of their models.  But Tesla is hardly the only automotive company utilizing such technology.  Most new autos already have some type of autonomous interface, even if it is just lane departure warnings, emergency brake applications, back-up sensors, etc.

While it is hard to say how far out the broad implementation of fully autonomous cars is, it’s not hard to imagine that in the next 5-15 years we will see many individuals decide they would rather use an inexpensive autonomous Uber than own their own car, or even better, than use public transportation.

At that point, companies like Uber and Tesla will offer a service so convenient and inexpensive that most will realize that public transportation is totally unnecessary and wasteful.

Hopefully then, citizens the world over will no longer have to work hours upon hours to fund $70,000 “per inch” nightmares, or any other government boondoggles the world over.

So, wherever you live, make sure your local politicians are well aware that you do not want to be saddled with massive public transportation bonds that fund nothing more than their donors pockets and impoverish generations of taxpayers.

Especially now that public transportation is in the final round of it’s humiliating defeat to the future of super-inexpensive private transportation!