Most big-city transit systems are in deep financial trouble these days and are desperately seeking money to tide them over until the economy or ridership (or both) improve. But this may be a good time to step back and ask the larger question: Why doesn’t transit work better in the U.S.? Consider transit’s advantages: Where population densities are available, it’s a cheaper way of moving people than requiring that families buy cars and governments build roads. It’s more easily scalable. (That is, you can add cars to a train more easily than lanes to a road.) Depending on your route, it can be a quicker way to work. It’s kinder to the environment. And voters consistently support transit, particularly when the alternative is more roads. So there you have it: Cheaper, quicker, cleaner, easier to scale and more popular with the voters. So why doesn’t transit work better? Libertarians say it’s because, despite the vote in transit referendums, Americans love their cars and won’t be herded onto buses or trains. Maybe, but there’s another explanation: We’ve so divided responsibility for decisions affecting transit that, in reality, nobody’s in charge. Think about how it works in your city. Very likely you have a transit system that’s run by a regional board, highways that are built by the state, and land-use decisions that are made by the city — all operating independently of one another. At no point is anyone is asked whether it makes more sense to use taxpayer money to build roads to a dispersed population or transit to a more compact population. The result is all kinds of crazy decisions: Regional rail systems extending lines alongside brand-new state-built roads; cities and counties approving new subdivisions that can’t be served by transit and will require new roads in the future; and (surprise!) transit systems that are underutilized and broke. What’s the answer? Some sort of system that combines land-use and transportation decisions so that governments consider which is the cheapest, quickest, cleanest, most scalable and popular way to get people from home to work and back each day. Don’t be surprised if it turns out to be a train.