American states are bailing out public transport

Sometimes, it turns out, protests work. On June 3rd, over a hundred San Franciscans mounted a mock funeral for public transport. Walking to city hall in the sun, they carried on their shoulders models of buses and trains like coffins, as musicians played a funeral dirge on trumpets and a saxophone. Their anger was over a proposal by Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, that would have cut $2bn of spending from public transport in an attempt to balance the state’s hefty deficit. muni, San Francisco’s local transport agency, had suggested it might have to remove the equivalent of 20 bus routes to stay solvent.