This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Saturday, June 29th, 2024. I'm Caleb Brown.

Street cars aren't great for commuters. They're very expensive and they're not good at alleviating

traffic. So aside from feeding the vanity of local politicians, what's the upside?

Cato's Mark Joffey says given recent examples, in the degree to which federal taxpayers can be taxed

to get those systems built, there's not much upside to be had. We're used to hearing stories about how heavily subsidized mass transit is and I I have been, this is probably my least libertarian view,

which is that to the extent that you're providing a subsidy for

lower income people to get from their homes to work as far as

subsidies go that's not the worst one that you could engage in.

But it's separating all the arguments

about mass transit and the subsidies

out of this conversation for the moment.

Streetcars are just about as divorced from taking people to and from work as you can get as transit systems. Is that about right?

Yes, they're usually quite short and usually in business areas.

So usually the idea is, hey, let's get more people going around a downtown area to shop and use the other amenities there.

And it would be more convenient for them to use transit in the form of a streetcar than other modes.

And the idea would be a bunch of people are going to park in one area

and then they're going to hop on and hop off

in the business area without making use of their vehicles further,

spend more time in this business area

than they might otherwise.

And it's just a very convenient way to get to boost the local economy.

Right and I suppose the transit fans out there would prefer the people not drive and park before they get to the streetcar

...