<story><title>Riding transit takes almost twice as long as driving (2017)</title><url>https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-transit-driving-times.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>matsemann</author><text>I think this problem is bigger in many US cities compared to Europe, because of the urban sprawl. There is almost no way to make it efficient to go from most people&amp;#x27;s houses to the city using public transport, since the area to cover is so great.&lt;p&gt;To me, the solution is to re-think why everyone needs to go somewhere by car to get anything done. Why not have a grocery store closer? Some restaurants? Everyone having to travel from their house to the city centre to do basically anything is so wasteful. Most of this is because of zoning laws.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tomjen3</author><text>I live in Denmark, have pretty much ideal public transport for my work (one bus, very little walking on either end) and it still takes about twice as long.&lt;p&gt;Which would be fine, except when you bring this up lots of people start talking about how to make cars take more time, or making public transport free.&lt;p&gt;Neither of which solves the problem.&lt;p&gt;I probably would be more willing to take the bus if wasn&amp;#x27;t also less comfy than my car. Not only does my car have better seats than the bus, but I am guaranteed one.</text></comment>
<story><title>Riding transit takes almost twice as long as driving (2017)</title><url>https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-transit-driving-times.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>matsemann</author><text>I think this problem is bigger in many US cities compared to Europe, because of the urban sprawl. There is almost no way to make it efficient to go from most people&amp;#x27;s houses to the city using public transport, since the area to cover is so great.&lt;p&gt;To me, the solution is to re-think why everyone needs to go somewhere by car to get anything done. Why not have a grocery store closer? Some restaurants? Everyone having to travel from their house to the city centre to do basically anything is so wasteful. Most of this is because of zoning laws.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mcntsh</author><text>The first example they give is NYC, showing cars being almost twice as fast as the train. NYC is denser than most European capitals.</text></comment>