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[–] 29 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

What is supposed to be surprising about this?

Everywhere I have lived, and everyone I have ever met had to take a car.

There are like maybe 15 places in the US with a functioning public transportation system.

Jobs are downtown but nobody make enough money to live downtown. Last time I tried it would have been > 75% my wages in rent only just to live in shit hole. I literally would not be able to feed myself.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago

    The map actually does a good job of highlighting how population dense places exist without a lot of cars per person. New York and San Francisco are both shown and have green or yellow patches. Mass transit works so damn good but, like election maps, the actual region highlighted is empty space with a few people all doing the same things.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    The real alternative to cars isn't public transit; it's walking and biking (with zoning density that facilitates that). Public transit is a 'nice to have' layer built on top afterward.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Absolutely not, having good rail infrastructure is an absolute bear necessity especially for the young, the elderly, and the disabled. But also people don't want to walk and bike everywhere, people (myself included) want to just jump on a train and relax.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    How are you gonna get your stroller, walker, or wheelchair from the train station to your actual destination without a sidewalk?

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    I mean there are a lot of people that do go without cars. I went without a car for 8 years because I lived on a bus line and I worked on a bus or a train line depending on how far I had to go. The commute sucked sometimes was over 2 hours. There are times where I had to be on the bus at 4:30 in the morning to be to work at 6:30. And when you go 4 to 5 hours a day just commuting a car is very nice because that same drive was maybe 45 minutes between morning and afternoon. That gives you so much more time to do everything else. Having a functioning system doesn't mean much when you have to go so far.

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  • [–] -1 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    I am not sure what your point is.

    So you went without a car and spent 2 entire months of your year commuting in hours.

    And that's...?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    My point is if you're spending that much time commuting it's not really efficient nor does it work for most people's lives. Which is why most people opt to drive their car to and from work and pretty much anywhere else. I don't know what you're asking and I don't know how to explain that better than that to you. I thought it was pretty evident with making a statement that oftentimes commuting over mass transit is not the best option. No matter how efficient or get the bus system or chain system is. Hell the bus system in my area comes every 15 minutes and the train is usually every 5 to 10 minutes even on weekends. We have a large commuter train that comes anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the time of day and whether or not it's a weekend. But when you're having to travel so many miles it's still takes time no matter what.

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