Comment No (Score 1) 654
It'd probably make me use public transportation somewhat more frequently for the sorts of trips I already use public transportation for sometimes. There are costs associated with a particular mode of transportation that aren't always monetary - for instance, time. The trip I most frequently use public transportation for, for instance, to get from my house to downtown LA, I have to factor in:
* Time to get there: for the train, first I have to walk to the train (~10 minutes), then I have to wait for the train (anywhere from 0-15 minutes), then I have to actually take the train there (~1hr). Then the same amount of time to get back. By car, I can just get in my car and drive there, but the amount of time it takes is widely dependent on traffic, which impacts the decision greatly. (Also when I get there, I have to find parking, which is a consideration as well, and how hard that is depends somewhat on where in LA I'm trying to end up.)
* Actual monetary cost: by train it's a few dollars each way for a ticket, per person. By car, it's pocket change in gas, but then you have to factor in parking, which is more per car but less per person depending how many people are going, so you have to factor that in, too.
* Might I be buying large, fragile or perishable things home? Obviously if so, a car is better.
So for that trip, there are a bunch of factors - sometimes it's better to go by car, sometimes by train. I've done both. Reducing the monetary cost of the train would just change the parameter values slightly in favor of the train, other than then the train would be even more totally jam packed with poor people who can't afford cars, as it goes through some rather less savory parts of LA in between (not saying that's bad that it goes through those parts, just that it would be bad taking a train that's jammed to capacity).
My 10 minute car commute to work, though, those same parameters are far more heavily skewed towards driving - the "walking" and "waiting for a train" times would heavily outweigh the "actually on the train" time (which would already be slower than driving, as there isn't particularly measurable traffic on that commute). Gas is tiny, parking is free, so it doesn't cost me much to drive, and would cost *loads* in time to take the train or bus. So no thanks.