[njarboe]

I continue to be baffled why people are baffled that most people prefer not to travel in cramped, enclosed spaces with random strangers and without the option to carry more than what you can hold in your hands. Sometimes people even have more than one small child with them. Is that really so hard to understand? The personal transport vehicle has been desirable from the beginning of time and now (almost) everyone can afford one. The big downsides are traffic congestion and space taken up with parking and roads. Those can be almost completely mitigated with cheap tunneling tech and automatic driving. Musk and friends are serious working on both of those projects also.

[ruytlm]

>I continue to be baffled why people are baffled that most people prefer not to travel in cramped, enclosed spaces with random strangers and without the option to carry more than what you can hold in your hands.

Transport is typically supply-led.

For roads, more roads encourage more drivers, and more drivers congest the system, leading to marginal overall improvement - there are only so many cars that can travel a stretch of road in any given period of time.

While with public transport there are also only so many buses/trains that can travel a stretch of road/rail at a time, we are typically well short of saturation - outside of some of the densest metros, there is often capacity for increasing the number of services. Investment in these forms of transport increases frequency and reliability, and simplifies connections. The 'downside' is that this increased efficiency tends to attract more users to the public transport system - which yes, means imperfect reduction of crowding, but still significantly improved throughput.

Also, the people on public transport are not 'random strangers', they are members of your community.

Re carrying, as a sibling comment says: backpack. Alternatively one of those granny trolleys. Plus, many buses/trains intended for longer transport (c.f. commuting) have luggage racks.

[njarboe]

"More roads encourage more drivers"

Roads allow more people to do what they want to do. If we can eliminate the bad things about individually controlled transport (road noise, inefficient petroleum based power, huge parking lots, etc) why should we not let people have this great thing they desire. Are you anti-democratic?

Driving is not free. It takes time and money for gas and wears out your vehicle. People don't (generally) just drive around for the hell of it, especially at commute times when the roads a most full.

"the people on public transport are not 'random strangers', they are members of your community"

This I think is the main reason some people want public transportation to be mandatory. Somehow being forced to be with other people (who are all on their phones, desperately pretending no one else exists) is a good thing? Standing up for 40 minutes packed, hot, and smelly. Occasionally aggressive beggars; homeless people who stink up the entire train car sleeping; mentally ill people yelling at the ether, etc. Not all the time but at least once a month if you are a commuter. I guess it is a cool experience to have to see how the other half live, but a some point many people don't desire such things.

"backpack"

For the human race to continue, each couple must have greater than 2 children. Try taking 3 children under the age of ten by your self, walking to a bus stop, getting on the bus, getting on BART, walking to the doctors appointment, and then back again. Basically impossible.