Public buses have a bad reputation where they've earned them, I think. That's the problem with a $7 bus - it's stuck in the same traffic as the $2 bus. Worse, if your city has bus lanes, your $7 bus is stuck in the same traffic as the proles while the $2 bus rockets across the Bay. Unless your $7 bus is run by the city in which case HELL YES charge the yuppies an extra $5. There's a fundamental problem with all this, though. Much like insomniasexx's post, it presupposes an economy whereby people with too much money will put up with the exact same bullshit as the rest of us, only minus some money. Been to Vegas? A limo costs about a dollar more than a taxi from the airport to the Strip. "Fancy buses" are a self-correcting problem - if there's demand for them, there will be competition and if there isn't, there will be extinction. But more on that post over there.