Originally Posted by
cbn42
There are actually an increasing number of private companies providing mass transit. Greyhound is the best example, but there are other bus companies like Peter Pan or Megabus, that don't rely on any government support and are there to generate a profit.
The biggest drawback is that in most major cities in the US, municipal transit agencies tend to have protected monopolies for their turf. For example, Greyhound can't really go around on a set particular route
within the city like municipal buses can and pick up passengers off of a municipal bus stop, right? For the most part, cities in the US has passed ordinances that makes it illegal for direct form of private transit to compete directly with local municipal services.
Say you're in Brooklyn waiting for the bus to head to Penn Station. As you're waiting, you see a Greyhound or Megabus heading its way to Penn Station. Can you get on it? Nope.
Even NY made private van services to be illegal:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/...-works/246166/
In a way, using an example as you said, a taxi cab could also be construed as a competing form of private transit. For shorter rides, they tend to be cheaper than public transit especially when you share a cab with three or four other people. But, pretty much aside from the dense cities in the Northeast, taxi cabs in the US are a "for call" service where they are not allowed to pick up passengers off the streets.
In LA, there's even a local ordinance prohibiting taxi cabs to be anywhere within municipal bus stops "for safety sake" (or maybe to protect the monopoly, hmmm...)
So technically, private transit companies in the US doesn't really have a fair competition against municipal bus services.
Japan OTOH, private bus companies are able to compete directly with each other on equal terms. Say you're waiting at a bus stop to take you to the shopping mall. You can wait for either the local municipal bus, private bus company A or private bus company B. Whichever comes first, you can get on at the same bus stop.
Or you can decide basing on pricing:
Local municipal bus has a flat rate fare of 300 yen per ride but the shopping mall is only 5 miles away; probably may not be worth it to pay that much for 5 miles of transit.
Private bus company A has a more direct route with less stops but it's only 150 yen based on distance based pricing.
Private Bus company B has more stops along the way so it takes you longer to get there, but it's has the cheapest distance fare of only 100 yen because they also own that shopping mall you're trying to get to.
Your choice.