Urbanists are going to have to confront the reality that it doesnt matter how fast and frequent public transit is *by itself* if public transit is about as expensive as driving especially with more than 1 person.

Doesnt mean fares have to be free but they need to be cheap.

You can increase the bus service in front of my house 10 times. Even put down a bus only lane. Please do, actually!

But if i have to pay $2.50 to roll the groceries up the hill on a bus the neighbors will continue driving.

Make driving very expensive is good. High gas taxes. Car permits. No free parking.
Yes yes yes.
But also, in the Bay Area no bus system should have fares exceeding $2.

Annual passes, man. Annual passes.

I would rather psychologically pay a big fare up front and get free rides for 12 months than pay $5 for a bus every day

Back when BART made the system free on Spare the Air days in the 2000s ridership increased 20,000-30,000 passengers. It was so successful they stopped doing them. We have alerts today, I dont see any boost in ridership. Maybe the free-ness made the system competitive with cars?

Again this is not an argument against boosting frequency and dependability but can we stop acting like unaffordable transit being less competitive than driving is not a factor here.