Yeah, I'll take the bait here.

Can we make it so public transit is massively more convenient, more accessible, and reduces the need for personal cars dramatically? Absolutely.

Disclaimer: I live somewhere that is juuuuuust barely walkable if you're abled and the weather is nice (the supermarket is about a 5km round trip) and have also lived places that, in the United States, are considered to have "good" public transit (NYC, DC).

"Freedom" to go places on your schedule, not the bus schedule. To go places the buses don't.

Try hauling two hundred pounds of cat litter on public transit. I'll wait.

People have been relying on having their own personal mode of conveyance since we domesticated the fucking horse.

Where did i say you shouldn't have a small car or truck for hauling loads like that? Idk if a bicycle trailer can be used for a load that heavy but i do think everyone who can ride a bicycle should have a bicycle and a bicycle trailer. And the buses should be coming so often and go so many places you don't need to check a schedule and it takes the same amount of time to get there as it does in your car. I'm not talking about adding a few more buses to your city, I'm talking about having so many buses the poorest car owners look at their cars and say "fuck this" and get rid of their cars and experience no inconvenience for the decision. I'm talking about "bus driver" becoming the most common local government job title by an order of magnitude. I'm talking about half or more of the cars currently on the roads in your town sitting parked while the people currently driving are instead taking the bus.

I don't know if cars could be banned en masse. I don't necessarily think they should. But i do think people 500 years from now are gonna look at photos of cities in the US and Canada and think modern car dependence is just as disgusting as horse shit piling up in major cities 150 years ago.

You didn't say that, and I agree with your core argument (some of the culled reblogs I removed from my post got up my nose, so I didn't want to give them eyeballs).

The way America is built right now makes it doubly challenging to implement widespread bus service - 1. suburbs are so spread out that route planning is going to be a nightmare and 2. a lot of folks who want what are essentially very big, expensive toys.

NYC has one of the best public transportation systems in the US, and I still needed a car to do some stuff, either as a matter of practicality, logistics, or because trying to get from Point A to Point B takes two hours by subway if you don't miss a connection on an express line (many NYC residents never even learn to drive, because they simply don't need to... but I was the one giving my friends rides places like Ikea because I was the only person they knew with a car; otherwise, you're hiring a car service and looking at a hundred dollar tab, including tolls, when I'd do it for pizza and beer).

My perspective that is neither agreement nor a rebuttal of anything previously stated. These are just my own thoughts on the matter as someone that studied urban planning and food deserts.

Of course it would benefit the public if the USA and other applicable locations were more public transit friendly. I'm too disabled to legally drive, and I essentially can't go anywhere because of how inefficient public transit is where I live.

It's low income and disabled people who are most impacted by a lack of public transit infrastructure. Our quality of life would improve dramatically with comprehensive public transit infrastructure.

(Aside: anyone would have trouble trying to rapidly divorce cars from social status signaling. The cultural value of cars as a monetary and social status symbol could change over time, but decades at minimum. It would most likely only occur after significant infrastructure changes and eventual societal value changes. So enjoy your personal cars too, no worries.)

There are a number of suburban areas in the USA that have bus systems, but what is necessary to support public transit is efficient urban planning. The USA frequently zones areas exclusively for residential use or exclusively for commercial use or for private/corporate offices.

Practical and thoughtful urban planning and zoning would solve a lot of public transit and general accessibility issues for urban and suburban areas.

Even cities that are already well developed could gradually rezone areas to create a better commercial and residential balance.

[Personal transportation is inherently necessary for rural communities, and their needs can not be addressed the same way as more urbanized communities. (Also, the USA must do better by rural communities, but that's an essay for another day.)]

We would need economic and generalized industry changes as well to facilitate public transportation. Taxation and yearly budgeting at national, state, county, and city levels would need to be restructured. There would need to be infrastructure for things such as buying furniture and having it delivered to your home or some other comprehensive service to get your combursome goods from point A to point B. There would need to be infrastructure for buying groceries and general goods in bulk and transporting them properly.

Questions that would need to be answered-

How do you get your large dog to the vet if large dogs can't go on trains or busses? How do you get your bulk box of oatmilk from the wholesale store to your apartment without causing yourself strain? If a transit route doesn't have enough passengers on it, should the public transit company/county maintain the route and is the consistent financial loss of that route sustainable?

tldr;

1. implementing public transit in urban and suburban areas would generally improve citizens' quality of life.

2. overall urban/suburban physical, economic, etc. infrastructure needs to change to create sustainable public transit infrastructure.

3. it's all doable but decidedly difficult to work on.

4. ? this doesn't address the needs of rural communities, which tend to be further under served than urban and suburban communities.

(I feel strongly about this topic and wanted to add my thoughts to the post, but I'm not trying to disregard anyone's perspective. Also, I'm so tired and fragile right now, please "don't at me," as the youths might say.)

[Me when I was carrying my dead Great Dane in a giant suitcase on the subway to the vet to get cremated and a guy asked “What’s in the bag?” And I panicked and said “laptops” and he stole it from me and ran.]

What I thought of while writing about public transit