Comment by arcxi
1 day ago
You need cars because you live in the country where cities are built around the assumption of car ownership. Go to any place with an adequate public transit and you'll see a lot less cars. Go to Tokyo and you'll be shocked, it's the largest city in the world and their highways are practically empty. It just doesn't make any sense to drive when your public transit is that good.
I have been to Tokyo, and I agree with you; perhaps I should have been clearer, but my point was that in American cities you DO need cars (this is a given, however unfortunate it is), and so you are going to already have a car and the costs that go along with it, and as such you are not going to use public transit even when you could because you already have a car. If I had had a car when I was in Tokyo I certainly would have used it! Public transit takes half an hour to go a couple miles, and cost wise gas is cheaper! In the scenario where you already have a car, it doesn't make sense to use public transit 90% of the time. Does that make sense?
The only point I was trying to make here was that cost isn't the reason public transit doesn't work in American cities, and making public transit free will in fact make it worse rather than better. I want good public transit too, don't worry!