It's kind of a reinforcing cycle. Since public transit is terrible, everyone wants cars. Since everyone wants cars, there isn't a lot of interest in public transit.
Yep. It's chicken and egg problem. You have to invest so heavily before reaching a tipping point of it being a realistic alternative to cars for most American's. Only at that point does it make sense. Where as with cars, we've already made much of that investment. I know it has a high maintenance, economic, and ecologic burden but that's not what we've optimized for. We've optimized for complete freedom and autonomy of movement. We have a number of light rail lines in my city. They mean nothing to the vast majority of our citizens because they either live too far or work too far. And by too far, I mean that proverbial last mile. The other problem is they're not always direct. Just like air travel, this adds time to your trip. People are willing to accept it on air travel because it's rather uncommon, but when your daily commute could be 20 minutes by car or 45 minutes by rail most people will drive. Not to mention, the run times are commonly every 20-30 minutes and are not always consistently running on time. This means even if you plan your day perfectly, a single round trip could leave you sitting for up to an hour at the rail stops just waiting on top of your 45 minute travel time. We have auto traffic, but nothing that severe. We also have sprawled significantly. The implication of which being people drive long distances to work as the status quo. With transportation, long distances means more stops and longer travel time. When driving, most people's commutes see an extra 10-30% of time than non-rush times. But it's fairly predictable and much quicker than trying to get to rail.
All that is also ignoring the other big items: weather & culture. I'm in Dallas, although this applies to many southern cities, where people most people are not used to the weather. Going to speak broadly, this applies to a vast majority of folks. They leave their HVAC home to their HVAC car to their HVAC offices and so on. The women especially get dressed up and do their make-up and hair daily before ever being seen my a non-housemate. Men are often still dressing in clothing that they'd like to keep clean. We don't carry changes of clothes around with us or have a natural style (like I see in European cities where biking is normal). Sweating and being rained on and such is completely foreign to us. We generally wouldn't show up to work after having walked a mile outside. This is why we don't even ride bikes for transportation even when going short distances. It would require a huge shift in perspective and culture around these things.
Weather is even more of a problem in places that are colder. Walking and waiting outside is a tough proposition when it is well below freezing, and the sidewalks are covered in slippery ice or multiple feet of snow, and transit is likely to be cancelled or delayed.
It’s also a matter of politics. No amount of investment in public rail is going to make it so that disruptive elements are effectively removed to the same degree as in my car.
That’s before we talk availability, comfort, etc.
Other than subways, public transportation is always going to be subpar.
In public transit you can sit down and read something during the ride, but not in a car. So the further you go the more public transits advantage grows as the total effort doesn't go up with distance, it is much nicer to sit in public transit for an hour than drive for an hour.
> it is much nicer to sit in public transit for an hour than drive for an hour.
I agree but the vast majority of people i speak to do not. They would much rather listen to a podcast or music than deal with the crazy people on public transit.
I've never dealt with crazy people on public transit and have used it daily for decades, everyone else just wants to mind their own business, although I live in Europe. So that problem is something that isn't inherent to public transit.
In the end public transit doesn't have more crazy people than a grocery store where I live, and I don't see why there would be in USA either except if public transit is grossly mismanaged encouraging vagrants or criminals to live in them. If you throw those out just like grocery stores does then the issue is solved immediately.
>"Saying things are getting better doesn't make you feel better," Hochul said, "especially when you've just heard about someone being stabbed in the throat or thrown onto the subway tracks. There's a psychological impact."
Maybe the balance will change as drivers also get crazier. The roads have been like Mad Max ever since the pandemic. At some point your odds of encountering insanity might be become lower on public transport.
For a adults, sure. As long as there aren't a lot of transfers, and it isn't significantly slower.
If you are traveling with young children though, public transit is terrible. Even if you ignore the hastle of getting the kids on the train or bus on time, and probably having to bring a stroller with you, keeping those children entertained while moderately quiet without disturbing the other riders too much is no small feat.
> it is much nicer to sit in public transit for an hour than drive for an hour.
Maybe to you but certainly not to me. I’ll gladly take a considerably longer car ride in the comfort of my vehicle with my music blasting over sitting next to strangers on a train. I have no problem with public transportation existing but it isn’t something I enjoy.
All that is also ignoring the other big items: weather & culture. I'm in Dallas, although this applies to many southern cities, where people most people are not used to the weather. Going to speak broadly, this applies to a vast majority of folks. They leave their HVAC home to their HVAC car to their HVAC offices and so on. The women especially get dressed up and do their make-up and hair daily before ever being seen my a non-housemate. Men are often still dressing in clothing that they'd like to keep clean. We don't carry changes of clothes around with us or have a natural style (like I see in European cities where biking is normal). Sweating and being rained on and such is completely foreign to us. We generally wouldn't show up to work after having walked a mile outside. This is why we don't even ride bikes for transportation even when going short distances. It would require a huge shift in perspective and culture around these things.