Below is a message from former North Carolinian, author, and JLF speaker Wallace Kaufman, that was posted on a listserve that we are both on. It is posted below with Wallace’s permission.

“Oddly enough the best system of urban transport I’ve seen is in former Soviet republics. In many of the former Soviet republics urban transit problems have been answered by the market with the market’s usual
intelligence. (One of the few truly market phenomenon in these countries.) The old Soviet era buses, trolley buses and tracked trolleys still run on heavy government subsidies. In Kazakhstan where I often work, those who want faster and more personal transit for only slightly less than the public system, there are now fleets of minivans running a web of routes covering
the entire former capital of Almaty. Their drivers lease their vehicles with the option of eventual ownership. Second, anyone can stand by the roadside and flag a private car. Any driver of any car who wants to earn a
few tenge (local currency) can size up the potential fare, stop, agree on a price and destination and go. The potential fare can size up the driver and the car and say yes or no. Despite the high crime rates in Russia and
Central Asia, this system works well and is used by single women, families, and business people.

It’s an entirely voluntary system of what I would call paid hitch hiking.

Both the jitney (van) system and the paid hitch hiking system (or some sanitized American version) would work much more efficiently than our present public systems, taxis or PRTs with almost no cost to non-users (i.e. taxpayers).”