&gt; You&#x27;re missing the distinction I&#x27;m drawing: If all funding for all transportation schemes was entirely user-derived, roads would survive<p>That&#x27;s very intellectually disingenuous. Whether one form of transport <i>could</i> survive sans subsidy is orthogonal to whether they&#x27;re receiving large public subsidies right now. You said<p>&gt; public transit is directly subsidized in a way that roads are not.<p>which is flat out wrong. Yes, roads probably do not <i>have</i> to be subsidized, and they&#x27;d still be around at least for freight transport and the affluent, but right now, they are still heavily subsidized.