[throwaway290]

Never been to US but saying car centric development in Europe is similar to US sounds crazy to me. It's not just Netherlands. Vienna, Budapest, Stockholm, Barcelona, Germany and Switzerland... is it really true people in America take buses and trains as often as in those places? and they are also so well maintained? is it just propaganda that public transport in US sucks outside of maybe NYC

[danaris]

It is absolutely not propaganda.

I live in a rural village about 5 hours' drive from NYC. There is no public transport here.

If I drive 45 minutes to the nearest city, I can catch a train—but that train will only take me to a few destinations (primarily Albany, NYC, or Boston one way, or Buffalo, Chicago and points west the other way).

Some cities (outside of major metropolitan areas, which do generally have some kind of rail system) have intracity buses, but they tend to be underfunded and dirty.

[_DeadFred_]

I live in a small (9000) very rural town with low wage jobs (so not a huge tax base) in a reddest of red state and we have our own very nice/clean bus system (it uses bus vans not huge busses). It not impossible in the US, it just depends on if the people of your town care to have it.

[potato3732842]

Same situation where I grew up, blue state though.

NY politics is the problem, not anything else. That whole damn state is just so bleak, nothing gets done without so many pounds of flesh being taken out by so many parties that things just stop getting done.

[danaris]

And yet, somehow, it's still massively better than when Pataki was governor...

At least we are now capable of passing a budget bill less than 5 months late, anyway.

[throwaway290]

Yeah. I just picked random two small villages in Italy 200 km apart and Google maps says 4-5 hr by public transport, yes a few interchanges but you barely need to walk less than 10 minutes total. I remember being impressed with european public transport (after what we have in russia) and this rings true. Then I picked two random Missouri townships 83 miles away and it's 40 min by car and no route at all by any public transport. even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road!

[Ancapistani]

> even if I chose so that both of them are on the same big 4 lane road!

If you've ever been on a Greyhound bus, you'd understand why that's the case.

[supertrope]

Here's a map of the US. https://i.redd.it/2nt3antutz8f1.png Green zones are counties with more than 10% of people commuting by transit.

It's essentially just NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco. NYC is 80% of USA public transit usage!

[OkayPhysicist]

Apparently there's a bus enthusiast in northern Nevada. (I'm guessing the real answer is towns small enough people walk to work)