[xutopia]

I once zipped at 300km/hr (186mph) in the countryside while drinking wine. When I was at my destination I stepped out and walked a really short distance to get a meal in a square. Everyone in the destination city had everything they needed at walking distance.

People in North America don't realize how freeing it is not to have to own a car to do things but without adequate transportation they only see the inconvenience of not having one.

[black_puppydog]

Even people in some French cities don't get it. Here in Toulon (southern France, between Nice and Marseille) it's hard to get the point across. Lack of public transit, lackluster bike infrastructure, and decades of car-first policy have left people without a positive vision. For them it's all just about "how do we get more parking into the city?" and "There are too many traffic jams, we need more lanes."

To an outsider (I lived in Grenoble before) it's so obvious that I joined some mobility associations as soon as I moved here, and I wasn't even politicized about this before, nor was I in any real sense active in the associative milieu.

[xtiansimon]

> “People in North America don't realize how freeing it is not to have to own a car…”

I last owned a car in 2009. I lived on Long Island’s North Shore at the time. The public buses are not great (NiceBus), and the train not very convenient (OB branch). Still, there is as a train and bus service leaving town. There is also a nice in-town municipal bus that costs a dollar and goes to downtown and the grocery store. As it is, the store was only 1.5 miles from my house.

All of this is fine if you’re single. But if you have a family with all the shopping and taxing, it’s not very appealing.

I now live in Queens, NY. While the public transit is better. Unfortunately stores are more spread out and now I’m 2 miles from shopping and there is no shuttle.

All this to say—I’m living the dream without a car, and NYC, even out in the sticks, is not bad if you’re single.

[Yacoby]

It sounds good, then you try and get a TER (regional train) and find there is one or two a day, using old rolling stock, overcrowded for an exorbitant price.

So if you want to take a TGV to/from Paris, it is nice. Anything else, less so (try looking at fast train route from Lyon to Bordeaux - through Paris)

[black_puppydog]

It's not just trains. You might have a look at this book that I can't recommend enough: https://www.leslibraires.fr/livre/24410316-quand-le-parisian...

FWIW yes, TERs need much, much, much more love in France. Instead, the govt is still refusing to finance repairs to re-open e.g. the "massif central" line.