Appearing in The Atlantic, which seems to be ground zero for contrarian idiocy. is the suggestion that the solution to the chronic under-funding of the New York City subway is tearing out the tracks and using the tunnels for self-driving cars and hoverboards.

What we have here is a techno-libertarian who believes that the way to fix mass transit is to replaced it with personal transit, which have already clogged the streets of every major metropolis.

The reason that the subway, or for that matter surface mass transit, moves far more people in far less space than individual cars is because it is following a discrete route with discrete stops.

Personal mass transit is not mass transit, and has few, if any benefits of real mass transit.

As to innovations, one only needs to look at how app enabled Gypsy cabs have worsened traffic congestion, to see how they don’t f%$#ing get it.