I take the train to work since my job pays for it, but I'm not going to pretend like it's faster than driving through traffic. If I drive, door to door takes 30 - 45 minutes depending on the time I leave. If I take public transportation, door to door it takes an hour and 15 minutes no matter what.
When i went to school in my states capital, I rode the bus there every day. I could drive there in 1hr, then pay between $4-40 for parking depending how well I trusted a lot. Riding the bus took 50m. It bypassed all highway traffic and had its own lane, and even with stops it still was faster than driving.
I think if we prioritized transit, people would be amazed how efficient it can really be.
The problem with the latter two is they get stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. Better 1 bus than 60 cars ofc, but it's not really that much faster even if you have bus lanes. If you don't have bus lanes, it's slower than driving by definition.
The former two work way better in their use cases (intra-city and inter-city respectively), and both of them pale in comparison the undisputed king of large metropolitan transit, the metro/subway/underground.
Thought process was like: if everyone just used buses, we could keep the infrastructure and it would greatly improve traffic. Of course in practice, IDK...
Will add a metro image~
This is exactly right. But since it requires everyone to make a change all at once, it unfortunately can never happen in the US.