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?
I dislike other people and would prefer to not interact with them if I don’t have to.
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.
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.
In the US, public transit is almost universally unavailable. If it is available, it’s a massive luxury (or strictly necessary, like NYC).
…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…
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 good
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.
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 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.
There is a substantial YouTube library of breakdowns on why we (usually North Americans) continually choose cars.
There are so many.
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.
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.
From a guy who takes the bus all the time.
Yes I prefer cars over buses, why? More freedom For getting around
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.
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.
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.
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
It’s really not that different from anywhere else. Almost anywhere in the world, people who can afford cars usually buy cars.
Where I live, if I took transit my twenty-ish minute commute would become an hour and thirteen minute commute according to Google maps.
