[mellosouls]

I have sympathy with the premise but unfortunately quotes like this completely undermine the reliability of the analysis:

World-class public transport, never needed a car in London

The idea that UK public transport is world class is absurd.

The author is doing extreme cherry picking by referring to the entirely unrepresentative London transport infrastructure and service.

Try living in a rural area or many urban areas, especially in the north, and talk about "world class" public transport to people there.

[dgildeh]

Do you live in UK or US? I used to live in the country too - and was able to take regular trains in less than an hour from my house to London.

Compare here, we have a Caltrain that only runs once an hour during the day, is slow, and to get to city requires switching to the Bart, which is also slow, and so filthy too, its much easier just to drive into the city, avoiding the potholes, and hoping your car doesn't get broken into when you park late downtown...

UK has it way better without any cherry picking :)

[thephyber]

You seem to be comparing UK to California. The parent seems to be comparing the UK to the best systems in the world.

Also worth pointing out that BART was originally planned to be a large loop around the entire South Bay, but the affluent suburbs in the lower peninsula rejected the plan to expand it to their neighborhoods.

Yay American NIMBYs! /s

[nicky0]

UK public transport in general may be lacking, especially in towns and rural areas, but London public transport (which the author was referring to) is definitely world class.

[mellosouls]

Agree, but as I said it's not representative of the UK, not remotely, and that's the comparison in the analysis.