[Sileni]

>Most people shouldn't be able to afford a car - they should be taking public transit - but they can obtain one because they take out loans.

A car isn't a "want" for most people outside of major US cities. It's a need. Public transport has never been effective in most of the US. Hell, I'd have to cross an interstate on foot in order to reach work. How many weeks do you estimate it'd take me to get killed? Should I be taking that risk because some politician decided my life was less valuable than their golfing buddy getting to work 5 minutes quicker?

[paulryanrogers]

> A car isn't a "want" for most people outside of major US cities. It's a need.

It doesn't have to stay this way. Smaller cities and towns can invest in public transportation. Activities which must be in person could be decentralized to more local sites.

[grej]

It seems likely there will be a lot less interest in public transit investment after the pandemic. Not more.

[zachkatz]

I think you're probably right. It'll be cycling's time to shine.

[coryrc]

Seattle/King County metro diesel buses gets 50 passenger-miles per gallon of diesel. Better than average, but not enough for preventing climate change. They're also still running nearly all buses empty these past weeks, so that's 0 mpg.

[paulryanrogers]

Buses don't have to run on diesel

[adrianN]

Traffic infrastructure can be changed. It takes a couple of decades, but it has happened in other cities before.

[leetcrew]

I would really like for this to happen, but I'm skeptical this is really possible in the US, at least outside the NE corridor and a couple other dense regions. are there any examples of this transformation occurring in a place as sprawled out as a typical american city+suburbs?

I can believe the poor state of public transit in the older east coast cities is largely a failure of policy, but as you go further west, you see many more settlements built around cars from the ground up.

[adrianN]

Density is a function of taxes, zoning, jobs, commute costs and probably much more. It can be changed given enough time.

[leetcrew]

sure, anything can change in enough time. but for some places, we might be talking about decades.

I visited a friend at her parents place once in prescott, arizona. maybe places like these don't matter so much for emissions (population 40k within the city limits), but I was struck by how totally dependent we were on having a car, even more than being in an east coast suburb. iirc, the closest place to go for a quick bite was seven miles away, the closest shopping center 10+ miles. her parents weren't particularly wealthy, but their house was built on a multiple acre lot just like all their middle-class neighbors. her father drove forty or fifty miles each way to work in the middle of nowhere. whenever both of her parents were out, there was nowhere we could go. literally nothing but private homes anywhere within walking distance. in this kind of place, you would almost have to tear everything down and start from scratch to make public transit viable.

[adrianN]

Of course we're talking about decades. It took three decades for Amsterdam to become as bike friendly as it is today and they're still far from done.