General Road and Highway Discussion

[p2ee]

GRT needs to pay its capital as well as operating costs so any shortfall must be covered by the subsidy.  There are no other funding mechanisms other than subsidies and fares.  (ION has additional subsidies but that's a whole different kettle of fish.)

In any case, the comparison is far too simplistic.  Too many assumptions about costs, and it doesn't consider the fact that cars provide both local and distance transportation whereas GRT is local only.  A serious comparison would take some significant work, though.

And the fact that with the climate we have, you can't expect that everyone to spend time waiting for a bus or LRT in -10 or -20.

Just a disclaimer: I'd actually prefer a properly implemented public transportation over cars.  Clearly 1 person per car with hundreds of thousands of car on a highway is environmentally bad, not to mention very expensive infrastructure. But we also have to be practical and realize that given where we are today with respect to our public transportation system and that we have climate that is not favourable to using public transportation, we have to accept that most people will continue to prefer cars except for places like Toronto and Montreal.  I am personally looking forward to electric cars maturing, getting cheaper, having higher range, charging faster, etc.  That'll be a big part of the future to get rid of fossil fuel.