[4ad]

Wow, what an ignorant comment. Yes, I say ignorant because it ignores the reality of places where people do all the described things using public transport. These places actually exist. In many places in Europe, public transport is not only good, but faster and more convenient than private cars.

I live in Vienna, Austria where elderly and families with many children use public transport and carry whatever they need to carry. Bus and tram stations are not miles away, they are 150m away, and came at 3-10minutes intervals In the metros you can even carry large items easily, like bikes, for free.

Also in Europe we have supermarkets at every block, we don't have to do our groceries miles away.

[joesmo]

Right. These places do exist. San Francisco isn't one of them. Most cities in the US aren't like that. Let's stop comparing apples to oranges. When SF gets a reliable public transport system with supermarkets on every corner and bus stops that are 150m away, then you'll have an argument. Right now, you're just proving the point you're calling 'ignorant'.

[4ad]

Yes, I'm sure San Francisco is not one of them, otherwise we wouldn't have this argument, and this thread wouldn't exist.

But I didn't comment whether San Francisco is like this or not, I commented on the idea that this places can't possible exist.

[ars]

> I commented on the idea that this places can't possible exist.

Which was not an idea anyone (except maybe you) had.

[icebraining]

I live in Europe, and the reason I use public transportation 95% of the times is because there's a healthy network of taxis (which is essentially what Uber is) when I need something that falls outside of the daily routine.

[ars]

> ignores the reality of places where people do

Only in the largest cities. And it's the same in the US.

But now look at the medium sized cities in Europe.

> Vienna, Austria

By the standards of the US Vienna is incredibly dense. There are only about 15 US cites that have similar population density.

Plus it's huge - over a million people. In NY the public transport is also that good. But there are only 10 cities that large in the US.

[4ad]

Moving goalposts, are we? First of all, this article is about San Francisco, and second of all, you complained that the described world can't possibly function in real world. The described world does exist, as mentioned by myself and other people in this sub-thread. Whether it exists everywhere or not is inconsequential. A single instance is sufficient to prove that your statement was in false. I gave one example, other people gave their own examples, in reality in Europe you can pretty much chose any German or Austrian city to pick your examples (I'm sure it's good in other western countries too, I just pick on what I know).

Second, you are wrong. Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective, and the metro is not needed (I hope the reason why not is obvious). Also, here in Austria at least, the trains are really good, really fast, and really, really frequent, and you can just take the metro to the big city center with the same ticket (something you can't do with cars, because cars are not allowed in the center).

Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.

This notion that you need a car to move around town or buy groceries is an american concept and seems preposterous to us, europeans. Cars have their uses, obviously, but these are not their primary use here.

[ars]

> First of all, this article is about San Francisco

My comment wasn't. These rants about getting rid of cars are evergreen, and they always ignore the same issues.

NY for example is exactly like your comment - you can do just fine there without a car. But there are only about 10-15 cities like that in the US.

> Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective

Only if the population density is high. Otherwise there is not enough demand for constant service.

> Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.

Have you ever been in the US? It can take 20 minutes by car to cross a small city because they are very spread out.

The whole reason to live in a small city is so you get a lot of land. No one is interested in living in a small village type city which is small (in population) but you only get small piece of land - cities like that are dying constantly in the US because people don't want to live there.

[ptfoobar]

What's medium sized? In Austria nearly all cities are connected to good PT, it's not a big-city only feature, even ~500 inhabitants villages are connected to PT. Of course it is not perfect, but it's there and it works reasonable well.