A deregulated housing market opens the door for local privatized mass transportation systems that are proven to work
Economics professor Bryan Caplan argues on Econlib that deregulating the housing market would increase movement to urban and suburban areas. Some commenters voiced concerns of population density and traffic congestion. However, others point out that mass transit, if privatized as in Hong Kong and Chile, could operate profitably and manage growth better than current failed U.S. public transit schemes.
Phil H:
[M]uch higher population densities make mass car ownership less feasible. More people would switch to public transport. That’s not a big thing in itself, but outsiders love to marvel at the American love affair with cars, and this site loves to moan about how socialist public transport is, so I guess it’s worth thinking about.
robc:
Transit doesn’t have to be socialist, with the proper density it could be run by a for-profit for a profit. Or even run by a city thru user fees alone.
KevinDC:
Regarding “this site loves to moan about how socialist public transport is” – really? Searching the history of EconLog for “public transport” reveals a grand total of seven entries discussing public transport, going back to 2003. And most of them are just offhand mentions of it – one references how Italy handled public transport during Covid, another briefly mentions the low quality of the public transport system in Istanbul decades ago. One talks about how Japan’s widely renowned public transport system is actually mostly privately owned and operated – does that count as “moaning about how socialist public transport is” in your book?
Which ties into the next point- there’s no intrinsic reason why mass transit has to be “public” transit. When private mass transit systems aren’t legally forbidden from operating, they do quite well. Another one of those seven articles, for example, talks about the Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong, which is a privately operated subway system, which puts public subway systems to shame in terms of cost and performance. Plus, this EconTalk interview with Mike Munger about how private mass transit worked in Chile (before it was banned by the state) makes for a pretty interesting listen, if you have an hour to spare.
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