Why do people prefer cars over public transport?
I'm 25 and I don't have a drivers license. I mean, I've never really felt the need to go and get one. Public transport is usually the fastest option where I live, and it takes a lot less responsibility to use it.
But most people would still prefer driving, rather than using the public T. Why?
Because public transport is not available (and reliable) enough for me.
For me it's available but not reliable. There's always something that forces it to shutdown. There are frequent delays and the monthly fees are really getting up there.
I think this is the main reason people don't use it in America.
Public transportation doesn't exist for most Americans.
If it does exist, it's really bad. Buses are the most prevalent in America and they just suck in most cities.
Bus routes are pretty sparse, so you end up having to walk a pretty decent distance to catch the bus and then again when you get off the bus and go to your destination. It sucks because it adds and extra 30 minutes to the trip, but the exercise is nice so for me the walk is something I can deal with.
What I can deal with is the fact that buses are hardly ever on schedule. A late bus sucks because you're waiting forever for it to get there. An early bus can be even worse; if you get to your stop 2 minutes early but the bus was 4 minutes early you've missed it and now you're waiting another ~20 minutes for the next one. If that bus happened to take you to an infrequent connecting route you're going to miss that connection too. Now instead of being 20 minutes late you're an hour late because you missed your connection.
I'd love to take public transportation instead of my car, but I don't want to waste hours of my life waiting around because the bus is never where it's supposed to be when it's supposed to be there.
I'd guess because for a lot of us in the USA, public transportation is insufficient to meet our needs. I'd love to take a train from home to work, but there's no train line that's anywhere near my house. They're building one that'll go near my work, but it's not done yet. Busses are available, I suppose...but the time it'd take to get from home to work or back would be a lot longer than driving takes, even in heavy traffic, given that I'd have to transfer several times.
For longer trips, again, the infrastructure just isn't there. To visit my sister, for instance, requires taking a bus if I want to take the public transportation option. My (step)son takes the bus to go see his dad (who lives in the same city as my sister) since he doesn't like driving, and it takes a good 2 extra hours compared to driving. We should have train service, but no...Scott Fucking Walker killed the project back in 2010 when he got elected governor of Wisconsin.
As the simplest catch all to your question:
People prefer cars when they do not have access to adequate public transit.
If the transit is unsafe, untimely, or unsanitary, then it is not adequate. I live in an area of the US with a robust transit system comparatively and even it isn't adequate. You don't need a car to get pretty much anywhere but the travel times are at a minimum 2x due to how sparsely things are scheduled off peak times. They're a bit closer during peak times though.
I honestly miss the free time I had while taking the buses and trains to read news or play games, but since work requires quite a hefty list of materials, and can randomly shift during a day, I need the mobility of a personal vehicle these days.
Freedom: I can pick up my car and go where I want to go, when I want to go without worrying about time.
I think it boils down to:
In some places, public transport is just bad, while car infrastructure is good. In some cities, on the other hand, public transport is great while going anywhere by car is slower than walking.
A car lets you comfortably get basically anywhere, anytime, in any weather, with any (reasonable) amount of luggage, usually on a more direct path than public transit. Nobody will bother you during that time.
Public transit:
I don't have a car, and usually that works fine, except when it doesn't and I realize I'm missing out on something because to be there at 9:00 am I'd have to get up at 5:00 am, walk to the station, take the first train at 6:00 am, hope I don't miss any connections and sit on two trains and one bus vs. a 1 hour drive by car. Or I need to get to some place simply doesn't have any public transit in reasonable walking distance. Or I would like to transport two crates of beer.
These trips that just don't work on public transit make people get a car. Now they own a car and have paid the biggest part of the expense up front. And once you have the car, it's very often faster and more convenient to just get the car and drive somewhere rather than deal with public transit, which probably will take longer, won't go at the exact time you want to go, etc. - and most importantly, it requires a lot more planning and figuring stuff out than with a car.
Driving a car you own also appears deceptively cheap because maintenance etc. is often seen as a fixed cost (even though driving more increases the cost), so people only consider the cost of the fuel. Even with European prices, driving 100 km at 6 liters/100 km is like 10-12 EUR. A public transit ticket is going to be just as expensive, if not more. Especially if it's two people going together. So even if for some connection public transit may make sense, it can quickly price itself out of the game once someone owns a car.
Having car sharing easily available can solve the problem, but that's still a lot more annoying than a car you own, since it requires planning, you can get unlucky and not have a car available, and dealing with booking/pickup/return is a hassle. And it quickly gets more expensive than buying a really cheap car.
Is the best resume of why my city public transportation ranges from decent to bad depending on where you have to go and what part of the city. Also is safer ro go in a car to almost anywhere.
This would be like if a farmer went to New York City and said I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t just milk their own cow instead of buying it from the grocery store.
Just a mod trying to help a community stay active while talking about their culture shock :) I'm aware the US is quite different to where I'm from, just asking why.
A car is superior in almost every way where I live.
-Cars are faster. They don't have to stop to pick up and drop off other passengers.
-Cars operate on your schedule. They leave when you leave.
-Cars take you directly to your final destination. No transfers.
-Cars can take you anywhere. Want to take a road trip, you can.
-Cars take cargo. On transit, you can only take what you can carry or can fit in a cart (if a cart is accepted and will fit).
-Cars allow you to set up for your comfort. You control climate control, you control the radio. You can even adjust the seat for comfort.
The majority of housing in the USA requires a car. The nearest public transport option for me is 40 miles away.
If I did live in a city I would prefer to live near where I worked and shopped. Then I could get by without a car day-to-day, but would still want the freedom of a car for road trips.
i can road rage in a car 👍
From 2nd gear straight into the 6th xD
I may have fucked up my transmission but I showed them!
If I want to go somewhere in a car, I get in my car and go there.
If I want to go somewhere using public transport, I have to walk to the nearest stop, wait for the transport to arrive, wait in the transport to take an inefficient route to the closest stop to the destination, then walk from the stop to the destination.
Basically, a 10 minute drive becomes an hour long ordeal.
Do you ride a bike?
I do! I'm an avid cyclist and ride whenever I can.
I live in a city with excellent public transport and use it a lot, but a car is total freedom. You can go exactly where you want, and stop anywhere on the way. Even with great public transport you can't beat it.
In the US, public transit is almost universally unavailable. If it is available, it's a massive luxury (or strictly necessary, like NYC).
Agreed, the only cities that I've been to that had decent public transport were Chicago (The L) and New York City.
Salt Lake City is coming up in public transit. There's a decent light rail and a pretty well spaced bus network. Frequency is a major issue though.
I've heard public transit is pretty good in DC, too. My fiancée and I are planning a trip to DC at the end of August. I plan on parking my car at the hotel and just use public transit, so we'll test that theory.
EDIT: Also, I've never been to Salt Lake City. Seems like a really cool place though!
It has its blind spots (NW is underserved because the NIMBYs didn't want the Metro to bring
black peoplelower property values) and it has infrastructure issues, but it's on the whole pretty goodSeattle is decent til like 10pm and then it goes to shit.
Here in Jacksonville, FL, there’s essentially 0 public transport. No bus stop near the neighborhood or to the grocery store (which is 20 minutes away).
...or completely inadequate.
I remember having a bus come every hour. If you miss that bus, then oops you're an hour late for work.
If you run 5 minutes late in your car, then you are 5 minutes late for work.
Also if you have to take 3 or so busses to connect somewhere, depending on how the scheduling worked out, you could get unlucky and have an hour wait between bus 1 & 2 and an hour wait between bus 2 & 3.
Taxis cost a decent amount of money here.
Uber/Lyft/etc are hit and miss. App says if you need to be somewhere at 9am, to request the ride at like 8:30 or whatever. And when you do, you don't get anyone showing up or someone will grab your ride, not come to you for 10 minutes, and then put your request for a ride back out there for someone else to grab.
Or forced to be inadequate, in the case of Baltimore.
We were supposed to get a new east-west light rail line. It was shovel-ready and federally funded. However, our wonderful governor Larry Hogan, in his push to punish those Baltimore ni- I mean, apply his fiscal conservative bona fides, canceled it, calling it a "boondoggle". Instead of this "boondoggle", Hogan threw his support behind the Purple Line, a similar light rail proposal to connect the whiter, wealthier suburbs in Montgomery and PG Counties. It was funded by public-private partnerships and ended up the subject of land disputes, went billions over budget, and is only just finally getting off the ground.
He also pushed for highway expansion projects that just so happened to benefit his real estate investments, but we don't begrudge him for that for reasons of...
Took my comment right out of my head. As someone who lives east of the city the redline would have been nice to have but racism took it away. I was just talking to my gf about it last weekend when we went into the city for a ballgame and how nice it would be to ride the train instead of driving.
Or in the case of NYC, strictly necessary and completely inadequate!
This is... not true in a lot of places.
Austin, TX. Takes me maybe half an hour to get across town in my car. Would take me two hours and three transfers to do the same by bus. Not saying the bus is bad by any means, just that the infrastructure isn’t built for public transport.
Speaking from a US standpoint, the public transit sucks. The main issue where I'm at is lack of bus stops, and the bus is never on time. I'd have to walk down a highway (not interstate) to get to the bus stop, then it might not even arrive on time.
Cars are faster, most of the time. However, they still suck. Traffic in dense areas is heavy at almost all times of day where anyone is active. It's really a failure on the US government why people dont take public transit as much.
I'm 23 and I really don't want to drive but I have to eventually. Public transit where I'm at is absolutely terrible and its holding me back from basically any typenof decent career.
If you live in a city with great transit, thats great for you. The sad reality is that in most places, public transit sucks donkey balls.
We can't sensibly talk about people's preferences without talking about the environment in which those preferences arise.
Here are some things that are true for most car drivers:
On the last point (though I won't debate the others, you're pretty much right); Where I live, there's actually a fair few workplaces and "transit companies" that provide various shuttle offerings to make it easy for workers to commute to work without everyone needing a car. It's great if the workplace in question doesn't necessarily come near plenty of parking. It's kind of like how as a kid, a school bus would pick you up, though they'll likely choose a convenient hub area.
I live in San Francisco, so decent public transportation. But even then, it doesn't run 24 hours. If you want late night fast food, unless you live in NYC, you either need a car or get to pay absurd prices for door dash to deliver cold food.
In the times I've taken public transit, I was hit on creepy people, harassed, seen inane fights, etc.
Once I went car I never wanted to go back.
My 45min drive would take 3 hours though five towns and would still need to drive the first quarter of the trip. Not mentioning getting dropped in to the homeless bedrooms, also known as the transportation center.
I dislike other people and would prefer to not interact with them if I don't have to.
In the US and my city unfortunately public transit takes some time. My local transit system has had a hard time keeping up with maintenance of their E-hybrid busses and has busses out of service more often than not. This causes many trips to be overwhelmed with double the amount of people they would usually take.
In addition to lack luster infrastructure, you can experience safety concerns with some members of the public. I was personally followed all the way to my old job once and had to tell my manager "A crazy man followed me here, if he comes in the store call the police because I will remove him"
Despite these downfalls public transit becomes much more useful when combined with a bicycle. I can take the bus to the shops and ride back because most of the return trip is downhill.
When I owned a car I would often choose the bus with bike over my own car because then I wouldn't have to worry about parking.
In my city, it's not out of the ordinary to look upwards of 40 minutes for a spot. I used to have to park 20 minutes away in the hills then skate back. Otherwise I'd be doing laps around my neighborhood trying to find ANY legal parking.
I can definitely understand why some members of the public prefer cars over public transit just for safety.
I'm not a little guy by any means, I'm 190 pounds of muscle and have some facial scarring. I've been described as "scary" and "You look like the devil" but I have had a number of run ins that made me fear for my safety.
If I was a 4"5 mom I would almost exclusively drive.
A) I have ADHD, so timing is an issue.
B) If I have to go far enough to drive instead of walk, I am probably going out to get a significant amount of stuff. I can't shove a Costco shopping trip onto a bus, nor carry it to/from the bus.
C) The other reason for traveling far means that I am probably traveling a far bit away. There is no way the bus is faster when it's an hour drive without traffic.
D) I hate dealing with random people all the time. I get in my car, I put on my music or podcast, and/or talk with my wife, and just go.
If you live anywhere outside of the inner city, public transport gets slow really quick.
Very much depends on the country you're in too though. I live in a 1000 people village and "bus to nearest train station -> train(s) -> bus to destination" beats car in terms of speed as soon as my destination is more than ca 30km away.
Reaching the nearest grocery stores takes about 10 minutes by car (incl. finding a parking spot) and 15 by bus, so it's not a huge difference either.
It is a huge decrease in flexibility though. The busses will only drive every 30 minutes or 1 hour, depending on the time of day.
My car smells slightly less terrible than the bus
I live out in a (relatively speaking) smaller city in Texas. We don’t have public transportation here.
Also, I like to be able to do things on my own schedule. A long time ago I lived in a city with a bus presence and had to take the bus when my car broke down and it took several hours longer round trip than I would have been able to do what I needed to do in my car.
From a guy who takes the bus all the time.
Yes I prefer cars over buses, why? More freedom For getting around
I thought the same as you too when I was 23. I live in Singapore that has very accessible cheap public transport. But I still got a driving license and I'm so glad I did. Two words: ROAD TRIPS.
Some places and things are impossible with public transport. Driving from Calgary to Victoria Island in Canada, driving from Melbourne to Sydney. Stopping by to get some food. Check out nice mountains, coasts. It's not so much about the car itself, but the life skill to get in a car and your AOE (to borrow a gaming term) extends to several kilometres with unparalleled flexibility, except for big crowded, car-less cities.
It is being able to get in a car with a group of friends and you're golden to have a fun time out. It's about an emergency and you have the skill with you. It's about another option if where you live has car sharing services and you need to pick up something from IKEA. Cars are one of the most perfected piece of technology humans have came up with, almost to the point that it is an extension of us now.
Public transit being the faster option is extremely rare in the US. On top of the speed, there's the flexibility of knowing that you can leave at any moment and go directly to your destination without any transfers or unnecessary detours, whereas public transit often has limited hours and infrequent service.
I always feel like these posts come from people who've only ever lived in a city. I'd love to catch a bus sometimes but I'd have to bike an hour to the nearest stop and even then it likely won't stop where I need to go. In some parts of the US at least, it's literally impossible to only use public transportation. So you buy a car and if you move somewhere with good public transportation...you've already got a car and are used to the freedom anyway
Also the US is very large geographically so if you have to travel often it makes far more financial sense (not to mention saves a lot of time) to get a car
Public transportation is not a viable option where I live.
Besides, a car takes me exactly where I want when I want.
US resident, I did public transport almost solely for years and was luckly to live in an area that had ok coverage from both a Bus and Rail system.
The bus I needed though only ran once every 45 minutes , so if I missed it Im way behind schedule.
That took me to a train system that ran every ~10 minutes during morning/evening commute - but every 20 outside that. Less than that in the evening or weekend hours.
Groceries - you're limited to what you are can carry , getting on or off.
All manner of people on the trains - most were good people just doing their thing, but then there are the homeless, the drunks, professional panhanlders, or downright mentally ill people who at best would ask you to spare some change, at worse you'd deal with a big ole cup of crazy while you're out and about. And someone jerk always playing music on blast instead of through headphones.
If you're lucky - the bus stop is close to your home, if not you hike a few blocks. Thats fine on the good days, but it sucks in the summer when its like taking a stroll through the 7th level of hell. Winter is great as you try not to fall and bust your ass on the ice, as you slowly lose feeling in your toes because you dressed for office attire that day, not skiing. Rain was always the best since some drivers would love to hit water puddles and splash you if you could, others did it on accident. Coming home from work - fine, you get to shower and change into dry clothes in a few minutes. The worst was when it happened on the way too work though - so now you have to choose if you keep a spare set of clothes in a bag, or if its an option at work.
Social life - not exactly a great look to say, what bus route are you on?
Limited distance - oh, you're interested in some cool event, what happens if its not in transit range? you either catch an uber or a lift from a friend.
The timing discipline needed - if the bus only runs every x, and the train only runs every y , and I have to be at X place at X time, that now means I have to leave 30min to an hour earlier than I'd need to by car to make sure I get there on time. And if you have a chance to leave work early? guess what you're not waiting for the bus , on a non-rush hour timetable so enjoy the wait.
A car - meant I could go when and where for as long as I please. More of my time was mine since I didn't have to account for interval times of routes, I could plan groceries better , transport sports or music gear easier when needed. Distance was no longer a limiting factor. Climate controlled car in the summer and winter and I get to stay dry during the commute? Not dealing with crazy people every day. It all takes a mental and physical toll on you.
Transit was doable I guess, but it wasn't enjoyable - the car was easier in all aspects of life.
An unfortunate side of how car-centric things have gotten in the US is that even if we do decide to expand & invest in public transportation, everything is so spread out to accommodate cars that it'll be near impossible to make things cheap, convenient, and effective.
Brainwashingand the fact that i have literally no other choice besides a car where i live.I live near Atlanta, in a spot where taking a train anywhere means I have to drive at least 80% of the way to my destination, then park and buy a train ticket to ride the last 20%.
The nearest bus route to me also requires that I drive 15 minutes away, and it runs infrequently and only directly to midtown, with few if any stops along the way (and it lacks a dedicated bus lane, so it doesn't buy me any escape from the same traffic I'd hit while driving, except that I could read on the bus or something). When I still commuted for work, I didn't need to go to midtown. I needed to go to Buckhead, which would've required that I walk a considerable ways from the bus terminal (if I'm remembering right), then get on a train that would take another 30 minutes. Total one-way trip time would've been over 2 hours. Driving early in the morning got me there in 45 minutes.
Most of that is due to hardcore NIMBYism around me, with just a touch of racism tossed in (of the sort where majority-white suburbs that have Confederate memorabilia shops always shoot down any transit expansion or funding by saying "we don't want urban crime, that'll make us just like Atlanta"...which just so happens to be one of the more majority-black major cities in the US).
Still, what it means for me is that public transit is totally unfeasible for getting around the Atlanta area.
It also doesn't exist at all between metro areas. There's only Amtrak, a private company, which has routes so limited that to get from Atlanta to Savannah (both in the same state) by train I'd first have to route up through North Carolina and Virginia and then catch a different train back around. Atlanta and Savannah are 3ish hours away from each other by car. They're around 30hours apart by train. (This is not an exaggeration; you can plug this all into Amtrak's "Plan Your Trip" tool yourself).
I went to Boston recently for a work trip. Their public transit actually goes places, and Boston's particular form of sprawl seems to be the sort where there are smallish neighborhoods a few train stops away from their midtown. In that sort.of environment, I think I'd be riding the train more often for work commuting or "I don't need to carry anything around" purposes, but use-cases like grocery store trips still seem like something where the car as a "stuff transporter" still retains a lot of value.
I would love the ability to take MARTA to work but it'd 40 minutes of walking just to get to the stations and to work
because public transportation sucks in most of the US. I just did a very typical commute for my area in Detroit region. The commute from Grosse Pointe Woods to Warren, takes an hour and 35 minutes by public transport. In that time I would have to walk a mile and a half total. or, I can get a car and get there in 22 minutes.
and now, because there is basically an expectation that everyone has a car, our communities are sprawled out over a very large distance. I could totally see how if you live in a city, you might need to ask this question, but if you lived in a suburb, it would be very obvious why public transportation isn’t popular everywhere.
In my current case, because my local public transport service is not the most convenient.
I live in a medium sized city were we only have bus service. We have many lines covering "almost" all the city, but each of the lines only has a relatively small number of buses available. This causes long delays between arrivals and makes combinations very difficult when needing to use more than one line. Waiting times of 40 minutes in the bus stops are not uncommon. By car, it takes me 15 minutes to go anywhere.
Another issue is with pricing: in our case buying individual tickets VS a monthly pass only makes sense when you do more than 40 trips every month. It literally costs me more to use the bus than to pay for gas.
In the past I lived in much bigger cities with underground service and plenty of buses available, and I barely used the car, and didn't even considered the pricing.
There are no buses where I live. The nearest light rail stop is 12 miles away. Several times I’ve made plans to go to a party at someone’s house, which would take half an hour by car, or one and a half to two hours using public transport.
When I do take public transport, sometimes it’s standing room only, too many people put their filthy shoes on the seat, people cough and sneeze and specially during the pandemic didn’t mask up.
@clueless_stoner I think if you live in the US. You don't have a choice. US kinda shot itself on the foot when they invested in car infrastructure instead of improving/sustaining their public transport back in 1900s. Now it impossible to get around the US without a car. And we keep consistently screwing over any attempts of a decent public transport infrastructure
Public transit is almost never the fastest option. Even when I lived in New York City, it wasn't the fastest option. If you were running late, you'd spend the extra money on a taxi to get to the airport or to get across town and except for the very peak of rush hour, it was faster. That's broadly been true in my travels in Europe, as well: taxis are almost always faster, from London to Rome.
Add to that, in the US, the actual experience of using public transit is often quite bad. Public transit is, well, public. You share a limited space, sometimes a very limited space, with literally anyone. Women are groped. The smell of urine is common. The seats are sticky. It's just gross, even in wealthy areas.
In contrast, with a car, you have a private, controlled environment. The temperature is what you want it to be. There's music. You can have a private conversation with your spouse. The chair is comfortable. Maybe you even have heated seats with a massage function. But whatever car you have, it's probably more luxurious than even a great public transit option.
So:
You deserve an award
If I take public transportation from my home to my job: I have to get on a train where it will stop several times due to the ‘TRaiN DisPatcHer’, then when I get off, I have to switch over to a bus…but hold up. Sometimes the bus SKIPS the stop so I have to wait another 15+ minutes and IF when I get in the bus, the traffic will be horrible. The bus will go 4 mph and I will have to endure elderly people with there bulky carts, children screaming, homeless people, people talking loudly through there phones, vaping, or obnoxious music. When I finally get out, an hour and a half will pass. I’m more tired, angry and my back hurts (because did I mention the chairs aren’t made for humans.) and I have to do this again when I return home.
So essentially, I think I’ll stick with my car.
I've long been calling cars the Swiss army knifes of transportation. Those knives objectively suck for most usecases. Sure, there is a little saw on there, but you're not going to cut a tree with it. Similarly most dedicated tools will be better than their eqivalent on the multitool. But that's not the point of a Swiss army knife. The little red tool is everything at once, removing the need to decide what to bring.
Cars work in similar ways. They are inefficient, loud and bad for everybody's health, including the planets. But they are also your all in one. Want to haul stuff? Cars. It's raining and you don't want to get wet? Cars. And so on and so forth. Each of this usecases has better alternatives (public transport, cargo bike etc) but none of these serve all usecases at once.
The car therefore promotes intellectual laziness. Driving a car means not having to think about the best way, because the car always provides a way. And city design often helps with that. The extreme is North America, but other places are not free from this.
Public transport rarely being door to door adds to this. You have to actually think about where the stations are in relation to your destination. Searching for parking is similar but people frequently don't think of it as being part of the driving experience.
And then there are additional reasons, that are less stupid. I've been told, that some people for example that some people don't feel save taking transit, especially those of minorities. The car provides a level of isolation.
Also social stigma (I would classify that reason as stupid though)
I think the answer depends a lot on where you live and how comfortable people are with using public transit as an option. Where I live, the service is just okay-ish. A lot of people I know would probably use it more, but they prefer the independence of being able to jump into their car any time they want and drive directly to their destination, as opposed to having to schedule a time to be ready so you can catch a bus, make a transfer, and catch your return bus back. Taxis are also very expensive now. The days of cheap Ubers and Lyfts are long behind us.
Transportation comes in 3 simplified steps. It needs to start near where you currently are, it needs to connect to where you need to go, and it needs to stop near where you need to go. For drivers, as long as there is parking at both places and roads to take you between, you can go at any time. From a USA perspective, poorly funded transit may have 15-30 minute waits and you may not even have the option depending on where you live and are going. The political and social will isn't necessarily there in most cases to drive transit frequency down to say 5 minutes and building out robust rail networks. I would love to take transit to work for example, but it would be a 4 mile bike ride crossing a main highway/stroad so its not very feasible for me to get there except via car or if I am brave enough on an ebike. And if am driving anyway, it becomes a choice between faster car travel or less stressful train travel (and cost of more driving vs the train).
From my perspective, cars are the jack of all trades, master of none of the transportation world. They can do everything you need them to, which is likely why they became so popular. But they don't inherently do anything you need better than other options, they just might be your best option depending on the infrastructure around you.
Also started a Transit community @transit
I'm happy to see a transit community on the fediverse, thanks for starting it. Unfortunately I haven't been able to access it through lemmy.ml yet
https://lemmy.world/c/transit@kbin.social
Does that work for you? Didn’t seem to pull every post when I looked though.
Depends where you live to be honest. Here in the Netherlands everyone i know, and this is not an exaggeration, prefers to travel by public transport when it's available instead of car, or by bike for smaller distances. They would only use a car if they need to go somewhere far away that's not very accessible by public transport. But even then you have busses that go in every small rural town, although they are not as frequent and I believe a lot of times they do not go on weekends.
Personally, I have also never felt the need to get a car and I will always pick public transport over car. It's cheap, convenient, fast and reliable. But if there is no other alternative then you don't have a choice.
One last thing i would like to mention is that I see a lot of people in this thread, but also in general, that they say they prefer a car because it's faster. The thing is, that if you get stuck in a traffic jam, with all the other like minded people, then it's not faster at all.
Public transit is the slowest option everywhere I've lived(cities from 5k to 500k population).
Disturbed people, smelly people, loud music, unwelcome conversation, fights, and urine/food/filth on the seating has also made public transit a last resort for me.
Driving and all it's privileges is an absolute pleasure when you don't live in too big a city.
Where I live, public transporation is unsafe.
Same
Where and why?!
Excellent transit infrastructure and pedestrian-centric planning (to the point that few people see a practical need to drive or get a license) is basically synonymous with higher living standards. Just like having access to great and affordable medical care, or healthy food, clean air, etc.
Unfortunately, a lot of people don't live in places that meet those standards.
Freedom and flexibility. I can go 3 blocks, 30 minutes or 3000 miles whenever i want. I start in my driveway and end in the parking lot of my destination. I don't have to worry about timing, connections, or how much i need to transport. I can be early, late, go for a 3am snack or start a trip at 4am so i catch the whole day at the mountains.
I prefer public transportation, but I have to drive to save time when I commute to the office. If I drive myself it takes 25 minutes. If i take a bus, it would take like 1.5 hours (there's no direct route there). So my choice is like literally 3 hours a day on a bus or a bit under 1 hour in my car. With long hours of work and limited time to see the kids, I can't throw away 2 hours a day on transportation. Since COVID, though, I've been able to WFH so now I almost never drive.
Well, as someone who has lived in Europe half my life and the good old US of A the other half, I'd argue that people don't prefer cars over public transit in general. America has a super strong car culture, and we could blame American's for this problem, and we could also be tempted to say that America isn't dense enough to have good cheap national public transit, but we had the best public transit in many ways leading up to world War 2 (good video on the topic: https://youtu.be/-cjfTG8DbwA ). In reality, with urbanization, lobbying, and the status/convenience cars just made a lot of sense. Plus, flexible passenger- and cargo-carrying capacities are a huge plus for cars all on your own schedule. Even, in great public transit cities people who can afford a car and the associated fee to drive it, largely will do so, since it just gives you the greatest amount of options to get around.
Personally, I'm highly sensitive and need a place during the workday to get away from all the overstimulation. My car is my safe, sacred space that is isolated and quiet, and I have curtains in addition to my sunscreen put across my windshield to block out the light. I can pause and meditate, or take it on the road and go have dinner in my car one night. I can stretch out in the back and nap.
But don't get me wrong, I still take public transportation when it makes sense. Like last month when I went to a festival in the city and it was much cheaper to the 2 buses and the metro rather than pay for parking. Sure it took a bit more time, but I just used the time to listen to podcasts or audiobooks and felt like the time wasn't wasted at all.
So TLDR I'm a both types guy. I like my car because I'm super introverted and need the space to recharge when out in public, but I use public transportation when it's cheaper or makes more sense.
Because i may need to be across town with 5 minutes notice
Because our light rail transit system can't handle snow, or rain, or heat
Because I like freedom
Because it's extremely unreliable. (Bus comes at 2, never shows until 2:20 and it's full so it skips the stop)
Sticky floors and seats, drug addicts, random fights, etc...
I'm 49 and I've been driving since I was 16. I'm done with cars. I live downtown and bike or subway everywhere I can. My car is 14 years old and I fill up the tank every couple months. it's a way better way to live.
The answer depends on where you live.
In a good city with well funded public transportation, it makes sense to use it.
But in other cities either public transportation doesn't exist, or is so limited/crippled that you need a car anyways to get it places. Then it becomes a question about time.
Yes I could take a bus, but to get from Halifax to Dartmouth it would take the same time on a bike, or half the time with a car.
Or well if I miss my bus in Fredericton I will need to wait 30 minutes for another one. Or I can walk and get to my destination before it gets here and leave on my own time and leisure.
In the US, the state of public transit outside of a handful of (very expensive) cities is significantly slower and less reliable than taking a car. I would pin the reason for this on the shift of people outside of urban areas into suburban ones, and the lobbying power of the automotive industry to convince the government and citizens alike that cars were the right choice.
If public transit is the fastest option in the area, people do choose to take it! That's the case for me too in the past couple of cities I've lived in. But most cities have a long way to go before they get there.
Aside from just talking about this from a convenience angle, a message that might help explain the issues with car dependency is how much more it costs! People that are more hesitant about public services might be easier to convince with a cost-based argument. This is a great video explaining the actual cost of car ownership.
It's tough... I enjoy biking places when I have the time and the weather permits, but most of the time a vehicle is the way to go in my neck of the woods at least.
I need to transport a bunch of tools with me so driving to work is required but if I didn't then I'd probably invest in an e-bike and use that most of the time to commute (need an e-bike to handle the winter paths here) instead of public transport. Where I am the car is super hard to beat most of the time though, and most people aren't willing to brave the elements or own and store an e-bike as the alternative.
Let me use my commute to work as an example:
The walk is too long (a bit over an hour) and you're in the elements the whole time, and forget about getting groceries or something on the way home from work. Biking would take about 20-25 mins but now I'm still exposed to the elements and have a similar limited carrying capacity as with walking, and will need to invest the couple of thousand in an e-bike (let's hope it doesn't get stolen while it's locked up outside) to manage the winter paths. Public buses take about 45 mins (the schedules line up for my path to work, otherwise it's twice as long), cost about the same as the fuel/maintenance on a vehicle ($3/trip), I need to be dressed to stand/walk in the elements for much longer than driving, and if I'm running 5 mins late I can end up being an hour late (gotta wait for the next bus) instead of just 5 mins, never mind turning back if I forgot something etc... I only ever use the bus when my vehicle is in for repairs and it's either pouring rain or winter, otherwise the bike beats it every time.
Motion sickness for me. I travel 2+ hours a day, and get really motion sick. It would be unbearable if I couldn't drive. Also, I don't believe I actually have reliable public transport between my home and workplace.
There is a substantial YouTube library of breakdowns on why we (usually North Americans) continually choose cars.
https://youtu.be/-cjfTG8DbwA
https://youtu.be/j4s9WDDRE2A
https://youtu.be/V3yXSD2O95E
https://youtu.be/n94-_yE4IeU
There are so many.
My main mode of transportation is by bike (I’m Dutch so that’s not surprising). For most trips a bicycle is much faster than a car. I only use my car if need to go a long distance or if I need to transport something too big to transport by bike. I only need to fill up my car with gas once or twice a year.
Do you use a car sharing service or do you own a car? Because it sounds like with your usage pattern, the former might be cheaper.
I own a. car, but it’s a tiny car (Mitsubishi Colt CZ3) so it’s in a very low tax bracket, I also have maximum no-claim discount on my insurance and this model car is very reliable so maintenance is minimal. It’s probably a little bit more expensive than a membership in a car sharing service but it has the advantage of always being available when needed.
I would love to use public transit, or even bike to where I need to go, but I live in a more rural area. The nearest, decent hospital is a 30 minute drive. A better hospital? Nearly an hour. Work is a 30 minute drive past farmland and lightly forested areas. No buses run between towns, since they're so far apart, and the train only comes around 1-2 times per day.
Basically, where I live we have no choice. Even the buses that run in town have rather inconvenient schedules, making it hard to get to where you need to go (in a timely manner, anyway). Lots of places are like this in the US, unfortunately.
I've got a 25 year old relative without a license. Guess what he always needs? A ride.
Not to say OP is the same burden. I'm sure you just live in a city with decent transit.
Public transport is barely an option where I live. Can't take it to work because work is 30 miles away in a far-flung suburb. I live in the city and public transpo is either total shit or unsafe. I can drive to where I need to go in 3-5 minutes. Taking a bus would take 30-60 minutes, and that's if it even shows up on time.
I can answer for Israel at least, public transport is really bad and slow here, it doesn't reach everywhere, it doesn't work on Saturdays and generally isn't on time, sometimes they skip stops altogether and sometimes trips are just suddenly cancelled.
My dad drove a car to work everyday for the last 35 years while he could have driven the same distance with bicycle in 10 minutes. I have not been behind the wheel since I got my driver's license. I guess some people just love cars
Western United States. I used to try to commute via public transport. To get to where I needed to go, I needed to get on a bus, a train, and another bus. My walk to the bus was about 15 minutes from my apartment. The bus came about every 30 minutes, but was often not on time. The bus to the train was about 10 minutes. The train only ran every 30 minutes, so sometimes I'd get dropped by the bus and have to wait 25 minutes to continue my journey. The train took about 25 minutes to my stop. The second bus ran every 15-20 minutes, took about 8 minutes to get to my final destination.
All together, my commute could be from 50min - 1h 30. In my experience it was usually closer to 1h 30.
Driving? 35min, 45 with traffic.
United States has got to start really investing in public transportation.
I used to use public transit almost exclusively, but I was priced out of the neighborhoods I used to live in that had ready access to bus and light rail.
Now, it's a 90 minute commute to work each way via bus and/or light rail, and that's assuming I don't miss a transfer. 30 minute drive. My best friend is almost 2 hours by bus, but only a 15 minute drive. My nearest grocery store is a 5 minute drive or a 20 minute walk. I never tried the janky ass route that could theoretically get me there.
What's bonkers is that I didn't move out to the suburbs or anything. I still live within the city limits. And I'm pretty sure that my metro area is considered to have among the better public transit systems in the region.
Answer in Progress did a video on this yesterday
Public transportation (the buses at least) takes twice as long as a bicycle where I live and bicycling takes twice as long as a car. That's it, that's why I still drive a car. Also it's really difficult to move my kid and her stuff 10 miles to school.
@clueless_stoner [American perspective]
This country has been built around cars for at least the past 70 years. All of our infrastructure is optimized towards cars. Public transit has been (some would say intentionally) held back to further encourage people to invest in cars and perpetuate the cycle.
I'm a driving enthusiast, but there's so much driving that could be rendered unnecessary with just an iota of added bike infrastructure.
Also, busses suck. Light rail is the way to go.
I've got 2 kids, and the public transportation in my area is basically non existent. My choices are taking a bus that doesn't get me even remotely close to where I need to be... or... uber? A taxi?
There's just nothing else here.
I live in the Netherlands so public transport is usually great(and free when you're a student) I use it almost every day to attend university. But lately the trains have been overcrowded which makes for a bad experience. Other passenger's are annoying. When I can get somewhere using only trains, metro or trams I will most likely chose to go with public transport because it's free and I don't have to park my car. But when I have to take a bus I will most likely drive. I despise busses because they're slow and make me sick. Also when I have to attend something important like an exam I drive as well. People I know have failed classes due to delays.
To all annoying people... Keep your kids in check, don't play loud music, please watch your reality tv series with headphones and don't talk about your sex lives out loud in a silent compartment, please.
For all het people without drivers license: How do you move large objects like furniture, dishwashers and ovens? I'm genuinely curious.
I am all for public transport but where I am right now it is either borderline non-existent or useless. So I have to use my car. If I lived in a city with good and affordable public transport (which I plan to), I wouldn't be using my car that often.
I specifically moved somewhere where we could use more public transit because my climate anxiety was overwhelming me.
Understandable!
Same-ish lol. I specifically looked at transit availability when I was purchasing a condo in the city. I'd open Google maps, click the nearest bus stop and see if I can get to a few central places in the city in one trip. Anywhere that required swapping buses was cancelled as an option.
I'll still need my car like once a week or two, but being able to either walk to or use transit daily for most of my needs would be a huge improvement to me. But still won't be fully able to get rid of the car!
Are you confused as to why people would prefer to be in charge of their own transportation and set their own schedule instead of being at the whims of whatever forces that might cause buses & trains to be delayed, cancelled, rerouted, full, etc.?
When I lived in a city with good transit, biking and then taking the bus was more reliable than driving to work. Driving puts you at the whims of traffic and construction, some of which may or may not be forecastable.
Did you live in one of those cities where they had the flying buses? Because otherwise you're just as much, if not more, at the whim of traffic and construction on a bus. A car will always be faster and more reliable than a bus. subways and local trains usually only beat cars because they're often on a closed loop where they don't have to stop. Plenty of trains have issues though, like the city I used to live in who shut down the trains downtown every single holiday weekend (downtown was the transfer point). A bike might be reliable on short distances where there is heavy traffic if you have dedicated bike lanes where you can avoid that traffic.
The problem comes if your city doesn't have total subway coverage and you have to take a bus to a subway, take a subway, take a bus from the subway, driving will always win.
Bus rapid transit is a thing, as are bus lanes. It's cool! No flying buses necessary.
Bus rapid transit and bus lanes are not universal and even if a city has them it doesn't mean they have them on every single street. There have been times where public transportation has made sense for me. I lived in a city where I was on the same block as the train station and my place of work was a 5 minute walk from the destination station. Great, I took the train everyday.
The next job was a 25km drive, which took around 20-25 minutes in a car, and if I'd taken public transportation it would have been 1.5 hours each way. Most people fall into the latter type of situation which is why cars are so popular. Public transportation tends to fall apart as soon as you start adding in transfers. Buses/trains usually don't perfectly line up so every time you have to transfer, you add in a significant amount of time, and neither of them are direct so when you combine inefficient routes with things like waiting time cars almost always make more sense.
Biking can quite often take you around traffic; in some cities, there are bus lanes that allow them to go around traffic too. Even just the ability to get off the bike and walk it up a one-way street can sometimes get you around some annoying obstacles.
Though it was hardly scientific, Top Gear once raced a car against three other forms of transit, the key being they had to go through the center of London during rush hour. First place was a bicycle, Second place was a boat, Third place was public transit, Fourth place was the car.
The vast majority of the plane isn't driving through the center of London to get to work. In North America a lot of people are coming from the subburbs to somewhere else. Let's look at the scenarios a lot of people deal with.
1-3 are usually fine for commuting. Assuming you don't need a vehicle to run errands, transport anything big to and from work, etc.
4 is the scenario for most people and why cars are popular. If I can walk out my front door to a bus stop, and get dropped off right beside work, a bus is great. if I walk 15 minutes to a stop, wait for a bus, take an inefficient route in the general direction of my work, get off, wait for a transfer (could be 5-15 minutes depending on the city/route) then take another inefficient route only arrive at my office in 2-3x the amount of time it would have taken to drive there, I'm driving. Most people don't seem to realize that most places don't have the awesome transportation system of a New York City, London, or some places like Seoul or Tokyo.
As the cities get smaller, the transportation gets worse. I grew up in a city that had 1 bus on every route. it would go by every stop once an hour. It was really awful as a system especially if you had to transfer. It wasn't just a matter if living near a stop and having work near a destination stop, you also had to see if the bus time lined up with your work time. Otherwise you'd be there an hour early and maybe have to stay an hour late. If you live in some European or Asian cities that have really good public transit, or one of the very few north american ones that do, and your work and house line up just right, it makes sense for you, but for most it doesn't.
I think a few others have mentioned how about 80% of the population, at least of the USA, lives in urban areas. So yes; generally the vast majority of people ARE traveling through heavily settled areas to get to work.
Everything you're saying about 1-4 is pretty much correct; and that's why in the end, I don't blame most in the US for not waiting an hour for a bus going to a train. But 4 isn't so often because it's "impossible/impractical" to set up public transit for that area; it's just that that area has, perhaps foolishly, invested more into cars, 4-lane roads, and parking lots than good bus/train systems, cycling lanes, and pedestrain areas. In the US cities that get it right (not so many, I'll admit), it's a really good experience, even taking a bike through large areas. Plus, the advent of smartphones helps people get to buses on time with minimal waiting.
Yesterday, I was headed somewhere, saw on my phone that a taxi would take 15 minutes to arrive, said "fk no, that's too long" and biked to a subway stop. Given that it was rush hour, the trip was faster than if I'd taken a taxi.
For north america it's an issue of lower population density, a significant issue in most Canadian cities and mid size and lower American cities. Europe usually has higher density and better investment. Most cities can't justify running frequent bus services in those areas which means people want to drive and thus fewer people use the bus and the buses get scaled back or removed. I've lived at both ends of this. Most cities aren't willing to spend the money in the hopes that ridership catches on. I lived in a city of a million that had only 2 train lines. If you were lucky and lived right on it and worked right on it great. Otherwise every trip became insanely long. Many feeder buses were every 30 minutes, so you ran into a schedule issue there, then you had to get to the train, and possibly wait 15-20 minutes for it. Get to where you were going, get off and wait for the every 30 minute bus going out to where you needed to be and ride that.
Even if you left right when the bus was coming, you'd be looking at 15 minutes to the station, waiting up to 20 minutes depending on how the wind blew, riding say 25 minutes to your destination (already at 1 hour) then getting off waiting for possibly up to 20 minutes for the other bus, and then another 20 minutes out to where you were going. Possibly 90 minutes, vs 30 minutes in a car, and you could leave when you wanted to.
If the train time didn't exactly line up, you might end up leaving 2+ hours before work started, vs leaving 45 minutes before while driving.
That’s all a valid critique, but…I struggle to see how your explanation is that it relates to “population density”. We are talking about the cities, not trying to put trains in Montana farmlands.
In fact, within urban/suburban areas, the point of population density mostly relates to…investments. Because each home and commercial strip is separated by two miles of four-lane roads, parking lots, and clover highway on-ramps, everything is more spread out; hence, less density. So I feel like a lot of people disagree on which end of the chicken-and-egg explanation. America is big, and has areas that will never be covered by transit, but that’s not an explanation for why out-of-car transit is terrible in its urban centers. It’s generally caused by poor decisions in infrastructure investment.
Because suburbs aren't very dense. you have much longer bus runs to pick up fewer people. Some cities don't want to spend money on it. Not every part of every city is like downtown New York.
A city that cares about public transport will think about and prioritise the reliability of it even during construction. Here in Zurich for example, there's things like traffic lights where bus lanes end so buses can beat the traffic, and any time there is construction the public transport is accounted for.
Shorter commute time and privacy. I already have a car and I HATE lugging my groceries around on the bus.
Even in places where public transport is very good, a lot of people value the illusion of power when steering the vehicle themselves. It makes them feel independent and in control.
Myself, I don’t get it. I’m over 40 and I don’t have a driver’s license. I used to live in a place where I could get anywhere by bike; now I live in a place where public transport is really good. I can’t see myself moving to a US city where public transport is a joke.
Where I live, if I took transit my twenty-ish minute commute would become an hour and thirteen minute commute according to Google maps.
I think most covered it all why they use a car.
I just want to add that it all depends on where you live. I don't know what you mean by "most". I would say most in cities with good bike lanes like Paris and Amsterdam would say most take the bike, or cities with great public transport like Tokyo would say most take public transport. If you live in a place like USA where it is dangerous to walk and the public transport is almost none existing then most would take the car. I think New York has ok public transport. But I don't know, when I was there were sandy coming in so all of the subways were closed off.
Seatspacing on public transport are ~10 cm too close to fit my knees.
I'm from the Philippines. My preferred method of public transit is booking a motorcycle ride because traffic can get so bad depending on the time of day. A 15m jeepney ride 8 years ago can take double or triple that time these days.
Really depends on where you are.
I either walk miles in 100 degrees or -40 degrees or have a car
Public transit is almost never the fastest option. Even when I lived in New York City, it wasn't the fastest option. If you were running late, you'd spend the extra money on a taxi to get to the airport or to get across town and except for the very peak of rush hour, it was faster. That's broadly been true in my travels in Europe, as well: taxis are almost always faster, from London to Rome.
Add to that, in the US, the actual experience of using public transit is often quite bad. Public transit is, well, public. You share a limited space, sometimes a very limited space, with literally anyone. Women are groped. The smell of urine is common. The seats are sticky. It's just gross, even in wealthy areas.
In contrast, with a car, you have a private, controlled environment. The temperature is what you want it to be. There's music. You can have a private conversation with your spouse. The chair is comfortable. Maybe you even have heated seats with a massage function. But whatever car you have, it's probably more luxurious than even a great public transit option.
So:
I live 5 miles out from the city im WV. I would need to walk/bike up and down hills for 2 miles at a minimum just to get to a local transit stop.
I prefer public transport but I've been tempted by a car.
Even in the UK in a city with decent transport links, some commutes are massively faster by car. Travelling at night. Public transport sometimes has wild enough prices that taking a car solo is a better value proposition.
Commuting in a car versus a sardine bus is also more pleasant.
Public transit is so slow where I am. A trip in a car that would take an hour takes 2.5 hours with the bus/train.
Hopefully there will be a Lemmy equivalent to r/fuckcars and r/YIMBY soon enough.
You might enjoy https://lemmy.ca/c/fuckcars@lemmy.ca
Having a hard time joining it for some reason.
The biggest reason is my local public transportation. I live near a large city in northern West Virginia. The only bus that comes close to my address runs twice a day. Once at 7am and then again at 5pm. On top of that it would be a 20 minute walk, 10 minute bike ride, or 5 minute car ride to the bus stop. If I had to I could make it work but I can't get groceries after work because I would miss the last bus by the time I got off work and finished my shopping. This means I would have to go out on Saturday at 7am and do my shopping and then catch the bus back at 5. Add on top of that having two kids and it's just impossible. Unfortunately a lot of the US is like this. I wouldn't mind if I had to pay more and my local government put more effort into public transit but that seems to be low on their list of priorities.
I will say that electric bikes and self driving cars in the future may change everything for the better.
I'm Polish so I'll speak about here.
Before the Iron curtain fell cars were seen as a symbol of prosperity, at the same time the roads were empty, so having a car was also massively more convenient. Then the PRL ended and suddenly everyone was able to buy a car. So everyone did. People stopped using the busses and trains, so they received less and less funding, leading to reduction in service frequency and available routes, leading to more people buying cars.
I live in a very small city in the USA. You aren’t going anywhere without a car. Lots of rural communities surround us and you have to drive past corn fields. A car is a necessity in a place like this.
Live in a college town and it sounds about right.
With the campus vacant, bus frequencies have dropped a lot.
In Greece, many areas are almost completely uncovered by public transport.
And even in the peak hours there aren't enough vehicles, so they get so packed that people are basically hugging each other some times.
Also, public transport was a pretty common place to be harassed as a woman, but I think the situation has improved the past few years.
Despite that, the roads of the city center are so crappy that driving in that traffic is even worse than public transport, so I actually prefer it :P
I also enjoy seeing lots of different people and listening to some conversations now and then
My freedumbs. It's stupid.
Can't answer for all of humanity, but for me I basically live somewhere that has absolutely shit public transport. My village has a total of 5(!) buses a day. But that's rural life.
I'm planning on moving to The Big City™️, so when I will I won't be using my car daily. But I won't get rid of it because for any trip which is beyond the central city routes it'll be hell to get to without a car. (I expect it to be once a week-ish).
E.g - to get directly from where I'll be moving to my mom's house is like 40minutea by car. It's 3+hours by public transport.
Also if I'll want to do anything that requires carrying stuff (like let's say, going to the supermarket to buy more than one handful of stuff...) - a car would make that practical as I'll be able to put the things in the car rather than carrying it across the city.
I definitely aim to reduce my car usage by a lot, but in my country I'll still benefit from using a car. Maybe in a decade or two the state of public transport will be much better and I'll be able to consider dropping the car all together.
Most cities don't have adequate public transit. They'll put in a couple of buses and 1 rail line and be like "Public transit doesn't work, it costs millions of dollars and no one uses it!" without considering that people don't use it because it doesn't take them where they need to go. If it can't replace their car or guarantee them faster transit to where they're going, then what's the point?
The auto industry has successfully created a culture of personal vehicles as a sort of status symbol. If you don't have a car, people assume you're poor. Same way people will shame you if don't take out a $20k loan to buy your fiancee a giant diamond to symbolize your love for them.
I got 3 kids and we got two cars. One big for everyone and luggage and a small electric one. We don't use public transport much due to:
We do try to also replace the big gasoline car with an electric one in the next 1-2 years, but I don't think using more public transport is viable. To the local city centre (to get an ice or bakeries) we do walk most of the time.
Sometimes there's no direct public transportation route. I'm in NYC and to get to Queens I have to go through another borough. Or I could do a half hour drive.
Sometimes you just don't want to deal with the crowds. I have an invisible health issue which can make it hard to stand on a bus or train.
I take public transport whenever possible. But I'm not going to say it would be easy to give up cars.
Check out the episode Adam Ruins Cars from Adam Ruins Everything: Season 1, Episode 3. It's a sad history of why we are where we are.
I would definitely use public transportation if it were an option where I live. Cars are too damn expensive.
Well it depends on where you live... Someone in Los Angeles can't rely on public transportation.
I think it very much depends on where you live.
I'm in the UK have never felt the need to have a car. I can get anywhere I want on public transport. If I want to go into the city, there's bus or metro, if I want to travel the full length of the country there's trains every few hours. My nearest shops are walkable distance (1/2 mile), my nearest 24 hour supermarket also walkable, about a mile
Going into the city or town by car? Got to sit in traffic, find a car park, it's just a hassle
But, if I lived in the US where the nearest store was 5 miles away, and my job was 20 miles away, and there was 1 bus a day passes through my town, sure. Different situation
We have very good public transport where I live, but it's so much easier to simply drive where you need to go instead of waiting at a bus stop for 15 minutes and then still need to walk for another 10 minutes to get where you needed to go. Yes, it's dumb and really bad for the environment, but it's easy. And more often than not, people prioritise stuff being easy rather than environmentally friendly.
The problem here isn't easiness but the low frequencies and bad positioning of transit in your area
The bus in my town arrives every 90 minutes. For my usual 13 minute drive to the grocery store, it would take 52 minutes according to Google Maps. That's IF I somehow found myself at the pickup(3 miles from my house), boarded right away, and hopped right back on after shopping. We're a family of 4, so how many groceries would I be carrying through this ordeal? Probably more than I'd prefer. It's just not feasible in rural America, and incredibly inefficient.
I'm live on rural area on some third world country. Public transport's schedule is random or non-existent for us, it is the norm to wait between 15 minutes to 1 hour for a public transport car to pick us. That is why we usually use our own vehicle to commute.
when i lived in southern california there were almost zero public transportation options. local buses were scarce. california is huge and vast and takes time to get anywhere. it’s really built around owning a car.
now i’m in seattle and at first i had to learn how to take public transportation. i’ve been working at the same place for 5 years and i primarily take transit. when i move i make sure i’m along a transit route. my employer also pays for a commuter card so it’s free! and with gas approaching $5/gallon, it’s a no-brainer. if i go downtown on the weekends, i’ll take transit because it free! and i’m usually drinking…
i wish the US would invest more into public transit or even better, promoting cities where you live and work instead of having to commute 1+ hrs one way.
Having lived in both situations as well, I definitely prefer public transportation. Just being able to focus on something other than the road during the commute and read a book is a pleasure. I feel like most people who cling to the car never experienced the alternatives, usually because they aren't viable where they live.
If you want to fly across the country you will pay about the same price as it is to drive for one person but arrive days earlier. If you take your spouse the flight just doubled in price but the car ride has stayed the same price. Take two kids or any friends and the flight price has quadrupled but the car ride is still the same price. Once you’re at your location if you flew you are now in a new city with all your luggage but no transportation. If you drove you are in charge door to door. Trying to get groceries for a family in any city in the U.S. and it’s way to long of a trip to do it daily and impractical to take a weeks worth of groceries on the bus. Outside of maybe New York City public transportation is a single man’s game.
I have never liked cars, but I will admit there is something peaceful about driving by myself listening to music on days off with nowhere to be. The problem with cars for me is always the commute to work. I hate it with a passion, and in a lot of cities not having a car isn't really an option.
Personally, I am a huge fan of public transport (also without a driver's license), but there are certain downsides to it that really can't be ignored. The biggest of them all: dependability/dependancy. As a user of public transport I am dependant on that mode of transport to operate. If they don't, I'm stuck. Say the public transport you wanna take operates only every one or two hours, that significantly changes how flexible you are and also alters the way you can plan. Instead of committing to, say for example, leaving at 8am and returning at 4pm, I may have to leave at 9am and return at 3pm (effictively cutting my visit short by 2 hours) if those are the only times with service. And then of course construction can be a nightmare, depending on where it needs to be carried out.
Car users don't have these issues. They can travel whenever they want and wherever they want on whatever route they prefer. No need to change between trains, no danger of missing the bus or running into construction, no restrictions caused by the train schedule.
Where I live, transit is just not good enough to rely on. I use it occasionally to get to some bars and back but even then the route I use for that stops running at like 9:30 PM so there's not really an option to stay out very late. And this tie runs on one of the busiest corridors in my city. I would definitely use transit much more if it had better levels of service.
For me it is easy choice. By car i need 10 minutes from home to work, by bus i need about 60 minutes. So in one day i save about 100 minutes.
Convenience. Directness. I live in NYC in an outer borough. To get to the neighborhood next door it's a 45 minute series of bus rides with the wait or... A 5 minute drive.
Now add in I have a family and try to make a toddler wait for the bus and xfer just to get somewhere.
Speaking as someone who lives in the US, the reason why people “prefer” it is because it’s embedded into the culture that public transportation is for poor people- temporarily embarrassed millionaires and all that. And the reason for that cultural programming is because auto manufacturers and airlines have consistently lobbied against any improvements to public transportation from the very beginning, and even had a hand in specifically designing cities to require cars. China has bullet trains that could get us safely and comfortably from one side of the country to the other in 4 hours. Most EU countries have safe, cheap, accessible public transportation that EVERYONE uses.
At the end of the day, it’s just another capitalist ploy.
The fastest bullet train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev at 268 mph. New York to LA is 2,475 (great circle distance). Even if it could be in that shortest straight distance and there were zero stops, NYC to LA would be over 9 hours.
It's really not that different from anywhere else. Almost anywhere in the world, people who can afford cars usually buy cars.
I've got no problem buying government bread/cheese. Getting the discounted meat because it's close to the sell-by date. I don't prefer a car because of the perception that PT's for poor people. I prefer my car because it's just a better option in my eyes.
China is the number 1 car market on planet earth now. They buy more cars today than nearly anybody else thanks to an exploding middle class.
The fastest train in China does not go anywhere near 700 miles per hour (LA to NYC = 2800miles). The train would have to break the ground speed of sound.
You can see that with all the comments talking about how cars are superior because you don't need to share space with strangers.
The majority of people who "prefer" cars are the people who have been brainwashed into thinking so by the advertising industry. The only way I would ever own a car again is if I was paid to do so... and they'd have to pay me a lot.