So-called “mass transit” is far older than sixty years. The designs go back to the turn of the twentieth century. Government takeovers have the bad precedent of NYC, when all of the private subway systems were taken over by the city, primarily by forcing them to accept an artificially-low 5ยข fare for decades; there was one system that was run by the government from the start called the “Independent” system (ironically) that had unfair advantage over the other two operators.
Yes, of course you’re right. And you have some interesting stories about that time... The ‘hard’ public transportation is over a hundred years old and it was well designed for the time. Subways, railroads and starting in the 50’s our interstate systems.
That said, public transportation has deteriorated since then. Partially because the people designing it don’t use it. My theory why large city buses have their windows covered with ads is to stop citizens from seeing a bus bought to transport 60 people driving around town with four or fewer passengers most of the time.