<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>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></item><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>matsemann</author><text>But why does the bus take twice as long? Because it&amp;#x27;s stuck in traffic, take a different route, too many stops?&lt;p&gt;I do think the best way of course is to make public transport a viable option by itself. But it&amp;#x27;s hard to do without actually limiting the use of cars as well. It&amp;#x27;s a chicken-and-hen problem, as long as too many rely on cars, it&amp;#x27;s hard to have a very good public transport. For instance because of what I mentioned, people choosing places to live based on cars making it hard to cover with public transport.&lt;p&gt;Also, disincentivise car usage makes the city much better for those living there. I hate that people outside the city drive to work every day. Those cars are loud, takes so much space (which could&amp;#x27;ve been cozy instead of asphalt), are a danger to kids, pedestrians, cyclists etc, pollutes the local air.</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>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></item><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>peoplefromibiza</author><text>&amp;gt; Not only does my car have better seats than the bus, but I am guaranteed one&lt;p&gt;at the expenses of everybody else.&lt;p&gt;there is nothing more wasteful than turning up a very heavy, powerful and polluting machine to transport a single non disabled human for a few kms.&lt;p&gt;anyway, your seat would be guaranteed also on a bike, a moped, a horse, a donkey, a 20 tons truck, a bulldozer and an helicopter. Doesn&amp;#x27;t mean they are all equally good options.
Doesn&amp;#x27;t mean city planning should consider the comfort of your bum a priority.</text></comment>