cars and events

[amw]

ohnotheydidnt dropped a great wank post today: US Swifties can't comprehend the concept of public transport in Melbourne. But, probably because it was posted when America was awake and the rest of the world was still asleep, there is a bunch of bizarro comments like how people would rather sit in the comfort of their own car for two hours waiting to get out of

Comments

[king_of_apathy]

I haven't owned a car in fifteen years since I lived in New Zealand, and I don't miss it at all, though admittedly NZ itself had some beautiful drives. Cars consume time and money to upkeep. I don't enjoy the experience of driving, and I think if I were to go back to it now I'd be a bag of nerves. I'd rather sit on the subway for half hour where I can zone out and read something than be tense behind the wheel of a car, anxious about traffic or where to find a parking place.

That said, if I lived out in the sticks with little public transport, I would get a car again. If it's going to take me several hours and several buses plus a long walk to get from my home to work or wherever else I want to go when it takes just 30 minutes by car, then I'm going by car.
But since NZ I've lived in London and Busan, two large cities well served by public transport, and there just hasn't been any point in owning my own vehicle.

'it takes a special brand of selfishness to complain about traffic while sitting in a private vehicle that is literally the cause of the traffic jam in the first place.' - Traffic is one of those things where people seldom realize they are part of the problem they're complaining about. Same with visiting a place on vacation and complaining about how many other tourists there are!

[amw]

My fear of going to visit my dad in NZ for a few weeks is that I will want to kill myself from all the car usage. Public transport in that country has actually moved backwards in recent decades, which is insane to me, because when I was young NZ was seen as a world leader in environmentalism. My dad has a lot of strong opinions about this.

Bottom line is just as you say, people don't want to wait for a bus. And when a critical mass of people don't want to wait for a bus, then the bus gets canceled and now there is no choice at all any more. The only solution is for the government to step in. Providing people with transport should be part of the role of government imo. But a lot of car-owning folks aren't interested in "their" tax money being used for a service they can't imagine themselves using, so the critical mass of drivers also means politicians have no reason to support public transport initiatives. One of the less great things about democracy.