Comment by Gigachad
9 hours ago
In the last year, the number of times my car owning friends have not been able to make it to an event because their car is broken is surprisingly high. While I have never not been able to get somewhere because public transport is not working. If the train is down I can take the tram, if somehow both of them are down there will be replacement busses scheduled.
And if somehow everything stops working I can book an uber which is still massively cheaper than owning a car.
> While I have never not been able to get somewhere because public transport is not working.
Oh man, when I first moved to Austin and used the bus as my only method of transport, getting to work was usually straightforward, but whenever I wanted to go somewhere on the weekend, I prepared for the fact that there'd be a detour around downtown, where I normally make my transfer. I'd have to get off the bus somewhere new and try to figure out where to catch the bus for the next leg.
There were also a few occasions where there was over an hour between the "every 30 minutes" bus. Rare, but it happened. Buses naturally tend to clump together, so they need careful, intentional management to prevent this.
Public transit is great, and we need more, but it's not as reliable as I'd like. Cars are far more reliable, at least for moderately wealthy people who can afford to buy new-ish and keep them well-maintained. Bikes, too, if you're able to bike in rain and snow. (I ended up switching to almost 100% bike travel after about three years, and just kept a change of clothes at work, and at least dry socks, shirt, and underwear in my bag. Spare pants added too much bulk to lug around.)
Modern cars tend to be very reliable in the early years. As they get older they get less reliable. I suspect your friends issue was budget, they were not willing (likely able) to spend the money needed to have a reliable car)