Why was it so difficult for the US to improve public transportation before the World Cup?

Posted by Mammoth-Try4561@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 20 comments

So you’re telling me that the US had nearly a decade to prepare transport for the biggest sporting event in the world, but links haven’t improved and the prices are extortionate.

I remember when the bid was announced and there was noise stateside that this could mean a concerted effort to improve public transportation and move more in line with some European countries. Obviously that was a bit optimistic but why do you think that host cities have failed to implement better solutions?

[-]

AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

Thank you for your submission, but it was removed as it violates posting guideline "Questions must be asked in good faith."

It means that your post includes trolling, joke questions, agenda pushing, soapboxing, or other signs of a bad faith.

If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via modmail.

[-]

GreenDavidA@reddit

I would argue the majority of people in the US don’t even know what the World Cup is, much less know that it’s occurring in the United States. It’s not a priority for a lot of people here. It makes the US a huge outlier, of course. There are a lot of people interested, sure, but soccer just isn’t a front-of-mind sport here.

[-]

GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

I would argue the majority of people in the US don’t even know what the World Cup is

[-]

goblin_hipster@reddit

Why would we make a permanent overhaul for something temporary?

[-]

lucapal1@reddit

It's not 'difficult'.But it's not free either.

Someone has to pay for it, and some (a lot of?) taxpayers don't want to 'subsidise ' public transport for other people, particularly for football fans from other countries... especially those who never use public transport themselves.

It sounds strange to us Europeans for sure, but for a lot of Americans it's not really strange.

[-]

Significant-Dance-43@reddit

As an American, let me add “because we just don’t care.”

For a less snide follow up to the above, let me also add, “Because any country that has built ‘stuff’ just for an event like the World Cup or the Olympics has never recuperated the costs subsidized by their population to pay for the tourists - including Americans - to build the ‘stuff’ (stadiums, infrastructure, housing, and so on).”

The subsidization never pays off for the local populace. It’s why the inhabitants of countries protest things like hosting the Olympics because we’ve seen time and again that when places without the stadiums already built and without the ‘stuff’ spend far more than they take in from the event.

So, as an American, I’ll echo the EU redditor above. I have never desire to fund your public transit. We won’t use it after you’re gone. We don’t want it. Figure it out your damn self. There’ll be Uber, Lyft, scooters (like Lime), rental cars (Hertz, Enterprise, etc) and in some cities buses, trains, and subways. Welcome to capitalism.

[-]

rileyoneill@reddit

Most people live in neighborhoods that can't really make use of transit, so investing in a huge system that they will be stuck paying for but provide no real utility for a sporting event they have little interest in is not a political win.

One of the stadiums that will be hosting the World Cup is Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. I go by the stadium on the transit weekly. It hosted the Superbowl earlier this year and they definitely cleaned some things up. As of right now the frequency is pretty low but I imagine they can scale it up if need be.

[-]

Clique_Claque@reddit

The economics of rail-based transportation works against (relatively) low-density cities. In such circumstances, you have to choose from the following options:

-insanely expensive system that has both extensive coverage but quick transit times (I.e. fewer stops)

-not insanely expensive (just plain old expensive) that has extensive coverage but is slow (I.e. lots of stops)

-not insanely expensive (just plain old expensive) that has narrow coverage but is quick (I.e. fewer stops)

Pick one!

[-]

MovieSock@reddit

So you’re telling me that the US had nearly a decade to prepare transport for the biggest sporting event in the world, but links haven’t improved and the prices are extortionate.

Consider who our president has been for most of that decade, friend.

[-]

AKA-Pseudonym@reddit

We aren't overhauling our public infrastructure for a couple of soccer games. There's much more to it than just putting in a tram line or whatever. Our cities aren't laid out like European cities so the same solutions just won't work.

[-]

KartFacedThaoDien@reddit

Im which areas? In Arlington, Texas they will not join DART the regional transit agency. In Kansas City they will move the stadium from Missouri to Kansas in a few years. And in Miami I'm not even sure they give a damn about public transit.

For LA they planned a people mover but but I'm pretty sure the owners of the LA Clippers and LA Rams dont want to pay for it. This isn't even getting into things like environmental reviews and numbers stopping lawsuits.

And in a lot of the cases I spoke of people have interest in preventing public transportation to the stadiums. So they'll go out of the way too stop. And any cities that werent mentioned do have public transportation to the stadium. Hell two of the most sprawled out cities Houston and Atlanta both have rail directly to the stadiums.

[-]

rileyoneill@reddit

Its not worth doing for a single sporting event. Public transit, particularly anything on rail is very expensive, and requires long term planing with both the transit and the development surrounding the stops. Spending huge amounts of money on a Halo project that will then be barely used when the vent is over is not politically popular. Especially when its mostly connecting hotels to stadiums and not suburban neighborhoods to stadiums (suburban neighborhoods, even with transit, rarely get more than a few percent of the population finding it useful to use regularly.).

[-]

GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

Replacing and expanding massive amounts of money on public infrastructure for a singular event would be incredibly stupid and short sighted.

Just look at all of the past stadiums and other things put in at other host venues that have since been abandoned.

[-]

Now I happen to think that's pretty fucked up, but it's where we are.

[-]