Keep in mind that when transit operators charge a fare, since nearly all operators in NA have a low farebox recovery ratio that fare isn't an incentive to increase ridership because you're still losing money on each new rider and require greater subsidies from governments. Now obviously it isn't automatic that every new rider increases costs. A new rider that helps fill a half empty bus makes the route more financially sustainable while a new rider that pushes a service over the capacity threshold forcing them to add more vehicle trips or larger vehicles is a hugely expensive rider. But on average, if the system has a 50% farebox recovery ratio, each new rider costs the agency/government the amount that the person is paying.
The incentive in either case has to be that it's a not-for-profit enterprise providing a public service and that administration of the agency are tasked with specific goals and targets for which they are accountable to the public and public officials for meeting.
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"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - George Bernard Shaw
Don't ask people not to debate a topic. Just stop making debatable assertions. Problem solved.
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