I’m 25 and I don’t have a drivers license. I mean, I’ve never really felt the need to go and get one. Public transport is usually the fastest option where I live, and it takes a lot less responsibility to use it.
But most people would still prefer driving, rather than using the public T. Why?
I live in a city with excellent public transport and use it a lot, but a car is total freedom. You can go exactly where you want, and stop anywhere on the way. Even with great public transport you can’t beat it.
Speaking from a US standpoint, the public transit sucks. The main issue where I’m at is lack of bus stops, and the bus is never on time. I’d have to walk down a highway (not interstate) to get to the bus stop, then it might not even arrive on time.
Cars are faster, most of the time. However, they still suck. Traffic in dense areas is heavy at almost all times of day where anyone is active. It’s really a failure on the US government why people dont take public transit as much.
As the simplest catch all to your question:
People prefer cars when they do not have access to adequate public transit.
If the transit is unsafe, untimely, or unsanitary, then it is not adequate. I live in an area of the US with a robust transit system comparatively and even it isn’t adequate. You don’t need a car to get pretty much anywhere but the travel times are at a minimum 2x due to how sparsely things are scheduled off peak times. They’re a bit closer during peak times though.
I honestly miss the free time I had while taking the buses and trains to read news or play games, but since work requires quite a hefty list of materials, and can randomly shift during a day, I need the mobility of a personal vehicle these days.
I’m 23 and I really don’t want to drive but I have to eventually. Public transit where I’m at is absolutely terrible and its holding me back from basically any typenof decent career.
If you live in a city with great transit, thats great for you. The sad reality is that in most places, public transit sucks donkey balls.
I dislike other people and would prefer to not interact with them if I don’t have to.
My 45min drive would take 3 hours though five towns and would still need to drive the first quarter of the trip. Not mentioning getting dropped in to the homeless bedrooms, also known as the transportation center.
A) I have ADHD, so timing is an issue.
B) If I have to go far enough to drive instead of walk, I am probably going out to get a significant amount of stuff. I can’t shove a Costco shopping trip onto a bus, nor carry it to/from the bus.
C) The other reason for traveling far means that I am probably traveling a far bit away. There is no way the bus is faster when it’s an hour drive without traffic.
D) I hate dealing with random people all the time. I get in my car, I put on my music or podcast, and/or talk with my wife, and just go.
From a guy who takes the bus all the time.
Yes I prefer cars over buses, why? More freedom For getting around
I live near Atlanta, in a spot where taking a train anywhere means I have to drive at least 80% of the way to my destination, then park and buy a train ticket to ride the last 20%.
The nearest bus route to me also requires that I drive 15 minutes away, and it runs infrequently and only directly to midtown, with few if any stops along the way (and it lacks a dedicated bus lane, so it doesn’t buy me any escape from the same traffic I’d hit while driving, except that I could read on the bus or something). When I still commuted for work, I didn’t need to go to midtown. I needed to go to Buckhead, which would’ve required that I walk a considerable ways from the bus terminal (if I’m remembering right), then get on a train that would take another 30 minutes. Total one-way trip time would’ve been over 2 hours. Driving early in the morning got me there in 45 minutes.
Most of that is due to hardcore NIMBYism around me, with just a touch of racism tossed in (of the sort where majority-white suburbs that have Confederate memorabilia shops always shoot down any transit expansion or funding by saying “we don’t want urban crime, that’ll make us just like Atlanta”…which just so happens to be one of the more majority-black major cities in the US).
Still, what it means for me is that public transit is totally unfeasible for getting around the Atlanta area.
It also doesn’t exist at all between metro areas. There’s only Amtrak, a private company, which has routes so limited that to get from Atlanta to Savannah (both in the same state) by train I’d first have to route up through North Carolina and Virginia and then catch a different train back around. Atlanta and Savannah are 3ish hours away from each other by car. They’re around 30hours apart by train. (This is not an exaggeration; you can plug this all into Amtrak’s “Plan Your Trip” tool yourself).
I went to Boston recently for a work trip. Their public transit actually goes places, and Boston’s particular form of sprawl seems to be the sort where there are smallish neighborhoods a few train stops away from their midtown. In that sort.of environment, I think I’d be riding the train more often for work commuting or “I don’t need to carry anything around” purposes, but use-cases like grocery store trips still seem like something where the car as a “stuff transporter” still retains a lot of value.
I would love the ability to take MARTA to work but it’d 40 minutes of walking just to get to the stations and to work
There are no buses where I live. The nearest light rail stop is 12 miles away. Several times I’ve made plans to go to a party at someone’s house, which would take half an hour by car, or one and a half to two hours using public transport.
When I do take public transport, sometimes it’s standing room only, too many people put their filthy shoes on the seat, people cough and sneeze and specially during the pandemic didn’t mask up.
In the US, the state of public transit outside of a handful of (very expensive) cities is significantly slower and less reliable than taking a car. I would pin the reason for this on the shift of people outside of urban areas into suburban ones, and the lobbying power of the automotive industry to convince the government and citizens alike that cars were the right choice.
If public transit is the fastest option in the area, people do choose to take it! That’s the case for me too in the past couple of cities I’ve lived in. But most cities have a long way to go before they get there.
Aside from just talking about this from a convenience angle, a message that might help explain the issues with car dependency is how much more it costs! People that are more hesitant about public services might be easier to convince with a cost-based argument. This is a great video explaining the actual cost of car ownership.
Short answer:
- I live 35 minutes away from work by car. Do you think my local bus goes all the way out there?
- The car is MINE. I have the freedom to pull up to McDonald’s at the ass end of midnight and buy 3 happy meals for myself if I want to. I can do the 2 hour drive to go see my family whenever I want. I don’t have to call an Uber to go to the hospital if there’s an emergency.
- AC is very nice. All the buses I’ve been on have shit AC.
Of the three points, the second is most important to me. Other people might get other things out of their car, like status from having a fancy sports car.
Answer in Progress did a video on this yesterday
There is a substantial YouTube library of breakdowns on why we (usually North Americans) continually choose cars.
There are so many.
A car is superior in almost every way where I live.
-Cars are faster. They don’t have to stop to pick up and drop off other passengers.
-Cars operate on your schedule. They leave when you leave.
-Cars take you directly to your final destination. No transfers.
-Cars can take you anywhere. Want to take a road trip, you can.
-Cars take cargo. On transit, you can only take what you can carry or can fit in a cart (if a cart is accepted and will fit).
-Cars allow you to set up for your comfort. You control climate control, you control the radio. You can even adjust the seat for comfort.
