Absolutely agree. Really quite tired of living in a country which focuses on individualised transport and car centric infrastructure. It's an absolute delight to get around in a country like Japan where I don't have to rely on a car at all.
At least for me, getting around by train in Japan is preferable because of how convenient and fast it is, not because of any inherent advantage of public transport, and definitely not because I want to bear a cross for the greater good of society. Japanese society also contributes to how pleasant public transit is there, in comparison to the dregs of society that use NYC public transit.
If I could have a 300kph autonomous pod that keeps me air-conditioned from my door to my destination's door, that would be preferable to even the proposed Chuo maglev train. Similarly, if individual transport can close the convenience gap with public transport, I would prefer individual transport instead.
I will say that I vastly prefer urban environments that deprioritize cars; I often find that even private cars work better in those environments than in car-dependent cities. Of course, it's always better to be one of the first exploiters in a tragedy of the commons situation.
The point is that most people would rather take private than public transport, all else equal (besides externalized costs, I don’t care how much co2 my pod emits). I would even pay a small premium for private transport compared to equally quick public transport.
To convince people to take public transport, you have to make it at least a side-grade, and making private transport worse without improving public transport will just lose you an election.
i actually wonder what the statistics look like across the entire country of whether people actually like cars vs its the only way to get around. HN is a bubble including most of city folk. Most people I know love their cars, including myself. I love the freedom of leaving whenever i want, going wherever i want. However, i also adore trains. Both have their place. I think a personal (ideally extremely safe) airplane sounds like a dream to me. I also think we should have trains! The more the merrier! Choice is important and while you may not care for cars if you have all of the public transit possible, others do. I still find myself going for drives and I'm someone who lives in NYC with probably the best transit system in the US.
I think the statistics around want are completely irrelevant.
Car infrastructure has destroyed the US both from a physical and social perspective. I highly recommend "The High Cost of Free Parking" as an intro to just how far-reaching this blight goes.
Sure, some people should be able to have cars. They should also incur the _true_ cost of having those.
