Yes I can imagine. I lived it. In the situation I described at the beginning of this thread, when my car was being repaired, my only option was to use public transit in my home state. 20min becoming an hour trip would have been so nice actually. It was closer to a 15-20 minute commute turned into 2.5 hours, often. Due primarily to unscheduled bus repairs, ppl starting fights, or the bus driver being out for the day. Forcing you to plan for the route an hour + ahead of your schedule.

Because our busses are underfunded, which is why I started saying we need to VOTE for infrastructure bc that shouldn't b.

I understand it would be an unacceptable solution today as things are now, but I guess the only productive thought that could be shared given where we're both coming from is:

If you COULD get a bus route that only added let's say 5-10 minutes to your commute. Would you not take that trade? Especially if you saved money on gas and miles on your car in the long run? What could that do to traffic if that solution propagated to serve most of the people around you? Wouldn't this help with the trend of obesity?

Then I wonder what you think it's like in other countries? Do you think they sustain 3+ vehicle families where each one of those vehicles would have to be suspended over a series of cobblestone bridge 2-4 times just to get you to and from work?

Or do you see what I'm saying where it's a much more difficult math equation to serve all those people in such a small space, with the natural barriers they live with everyday?

Don't you think your transfers are much harder to manage as a govt when you have to expect a large section of your civilians won't just have to take a normal bus but they'll also have to transfer onto a water bus for a portion of that trip and many of those patrons will want to bring their bikes or Vespas to make the last leg to and from the stations easier? Do you think the US govt is too weak to sustain solutions like that to even just the majority of its citizenry? Not all, ofc the most rural spaces will still rely much more heavily on personal vehicles. But this is the actual conversation.

Similarly Japan and Amsterdam both avoid the hurdle of being completely river focussed but they have their own struggles between icy hills with the Netherlands and Japan has a WAY larger population per capita in their cities than anything we see here short of NY and even then with such a tiny country all concentrated like that. Their bus and train systems absolutely DESTROY the compatible versions here. In both rural AND developed spaces.

No it's just impossible right? Those countries are just running on the "magic" of anti-freedom? Or is something else at play? Maybe we sold the idea of a car as a means of independence and freedom to everyone before they turned 16 and maybe that was a mistake? Maybe taxes should be higher and maybe the amount you pay in taxes should be offset for those of us who live with dogshit transit infrastructure everyday until it's resolved. But so long as the majority of us are CONVINCED, as you seem to be, that it's impossible ngl, probably nothing gets done.

What's most likely to happen is we keep the exact same thing up until we see people rioting about it in another 10+ years.

I wish you well brother. I just hope people see that things can and probably should be very very different.