I used to live in Boston and the light rail system there was terrific. Everybody used it. Sure parking and driving in Boston is a nightmare and car ownership is expensive but the public transpo system is really great and I never felt as if I couldn't get where I needed to go. I've lived in a few other cities since then and the public transpo has been, in comparison, bad. As a woman, I wouldn't feel safe waiting at a bus stop after dark in a lot of places. I also notice quite a few inebriated people on the bus when I take it (better than having them behind the wheel of course). I kind of think the Uber and the Google driverless car is going to make the whole public transpo debate moot. Without massive $$$ investment it will never be as frequent, pleasant, fast, and inexpensive as we want it to be. And I don't think we're in a climate where people will be willing to pay more taxes to do something "in the public good". I think that era is over, actually.