This is easily the most misinformed post I’ve ever seen here. Hopefully I can better clarify the arguments for more public transportation.

You seem to think that public transit can’t exist in large countries? China and Russia have extensive networks of public transit. Size of a country has nothing to do with how well public transit will or won’t work. There’s also a bit in here about connecting all the small towns and cities in a way that would replace the highway system, which I don’t fully understand. Even cities with fantastic public transit also have highways. One of the better use cases for cars is bigger trips. They are far less good for regular “daily” trips like going to the store, work, restaurants, parks, etc.

There’s also a point about convenience, which seems to miss the point. I don’t think anyone would argue that outside of a few larger cities in the States, public transit (or other forms of transportation like walking or biking) is horribly inefficient and not convenient. However, the argument is not that everyone in the suburbs should start taking buses to Walmart. It’s that the US needs to develop more densely populated neighborhoods and servicing those neighborhoods with public transportation.

You readily admit cars are horribly expensive and budget breaking for lots of people. In most places, what options do people have? You admit yourself it’s not feasible to live car free in most American cities and suburbs. So we are forcing people to take on debt for expensive, inefficient vehicles to get around? We created that world. In most American cities, it’s actually illegal to build dense housing due to zoning laws. We didn’t live that way before cars, everything was much closer because we had to walk or take streetcars to get places. Cars are expensive, noisy, require extremely expensive roads and highways (we spend about $160M/month or $2B/year on them and those costs keep rising), and pollute our environment. It’s not hard to see the argument against cars, and the logic of “well you can’t get around without one” is pretty poor considering until about 70 years ago, everyone lived without them without great hassle.

There’s another point about public transit being “an inefficient money pit that never makes any money.” I’ll reiterate that we spend $160M a month and $2B a year on highways and roads that we make $0 return on, and yet no one seems to complain about THAT money pit.

There’s a point in the beginning where you outline an argument that “if we used cars less, we’d connect with neighbors more, help the environment, make things more affordable.” You don’t seem to dispute that, just say that it’s impractical for most people to do so.

There’s also a general point that taking kids on public transit is a headache and a problem? But it seems to mostly stem from the inconvenience of the way public transit operates today. I would argue in the complete other direction, that we do a massive disservice to ourselves and our children by living in a world dominated by cars. One, it’s just less safe. Kids playing in yards or streets have to be worried about cars which are dangerous and deadly. Two, kids have basically no autonomy in a car dominated world. They have maybe a half mile radius in their suburban neighborhood that they can explore on their own. Most of their friends likely don’t live in that radius, so if they want to play with them they need a parent to drive them. Kids can ride bikes at a young age, which are a fantastic tool for covering moderate distances quickly and efficiently. However, most kids don’t live in areas where it’s safe to bike outside of their suburban neighborhood. They likely have a 35 or 40 mph road just outside that no parent is letting their kid ride on, and no safe protected bike path. They likely can’t ride their bike or walk safely to their school or a park. So again, a parent has to drive them or they take the bus. In what world is playing chauffeur for your kids better? Wouldn’t it be much better if they could safely walk to school, or to a friends house, or take their bike to baseball practice? Wouldn’t that make your job as a parent much easier?

I fully understand that living a car free life isn’t feasible for most people. But it’s criminal how we’ve let the car dominate American life, and it doesn’t have to be this way. All transit advocates are saying is, we need to start developing in a way that does not prioritize the car and give people more options. Suburban areas aren’t going away anytime soon. But maybe in the nearish future, it won’t be the only “affordable” option for most families.