The primary way they're actually being rolled out in the USA is conspicuous consumption. Yes a bus would do the job for a tenth the price, or a taxi for half the price, just like a $250/month apartment in the highest crime part of the inner city technically does the same job as this new $5000/month apartment on the tram line. The point of stainless steel appliance kitchens for people who can't cook is it prevents people who can't afford stainless steel kitchens from living there, like poor people, minorities and such.
Likewise the rails are convenient enough because most social media holiness spiral destinations are permanent. So you can brag about how you're going to the progressive art museum, or a book signing at the library, or the performing arts center, or the hyper trendy college hipster bars (although the tram service stops at sundown to avoid actual drunks), but you can't use the tram to do prole stuff like go to work or school or the food store or doctors office because there's no tracks there, proles go away keep out. Trams are only for special rich people doing special rich people things, the kind that pat themselves on their backs for their egalitarianism on a regular basis, if you have to ask you don't belong there on the tram. Ideally there would be no icky poor people anywhere along the tram rails, nothing but rich white faces as far as the eye can see. Maybe they could build a fence around the whole neighborhood, or just have the police keep the riff raff out of our special area for special people.