City Life

The pervasive belief that every single service offered by a city needs to be profitable as if it is a private business as an individual module and not part of a bigger plan. It would be like a business requiring their advertising department to self-fund by somehow selling the ads. It objectively doesn't make sense as part of a business plan, but it's the expectation for public transit.

The irony being that the same people who absolutely believe things like public transit MUST be operated profitably don't care at all that the overall city budget is in the red. They'll say it costs too much to operate the bus while doubling down on road expansions and refusing to adjust millage rates that force the city budget into deeper debt.

The cities that spend the absolute largest percent of their budgets on transportation are the cities with the largest car modeshare. The cities which spend the lowest percent of their budgets on transportation are the ones with robust bikeped and public transit. That's why Houston spend some outrageous amount like a quarter of their budget on transportation, NYC is closer to 10%, and Amsterdam is closer to 5%. If you want to save money on the city budget, get people out of cars and into busses.

Self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives are the least financially responsible people to put in charge of city governments. Aggressive efforts to cut costs prevent even larger amounts of revenue.