> Even this perpetuates the dominance of single-rider transportation,
> both on the streets (which should be re-socialized as communal
> spaces for recreation, parks, gardens, local markets, etc.) and
> in the popular imagination.
I'm for it, but in the mean time what we have is a full assault on exactly the opposite.
There's not going to be any public transportation left once the forces behind Uber et al get done with reshaping the landscape. Take a look at the "Google Busses" in San Francisco: do you think this is going to help Muni get cleaned up and more efficient? No, it's going to signal the end of public transportation, much like charter schools are signalling the end of public education.
The city had an opportunity to regulate it. Make Google and Facebook pay taxes and in return run express busses -- operated by union workers with municipal retirement plans instead of private workers with no benefits -- that serve the need. Instead what they did was completely bypass the whole system, carving out a slice of the public sphere and claiming it as their own. They even stop in the bus stops!
> The focus should rather be on demanding safe, clean, convenient,
> predictable mass public transportation (with communal spaces at
> the stops - wifi hotspots, libraries, beverages), and shorter, more
> flexible working hours (clawing back some of the potential benefits
> of those productivity gains, and giving people time to get to work
> without relying on cars).
Demand all you like, stomp your feet if you feel better about it. But what you are actively receiving is 180 degrees from that, and large numbers of people shrug their shoulders and say "well, the busses aren't on time anyway, who needs them?" ... you are thus part of the problem: working actively against what you claim to support.
/jordan