<story><title>Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/nyregion/driving-manhattan-congestion-traffic.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hartator</author><text>I think you have to live in big city and have taken public transportation on a daily basis, to understand the frustations, the dalays, the insecurity, the smell, the crowdness, and the freedom reducing of it.</text></item><item><author>rsynnott</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s amazing how habit-forming driving seems to be. A friend was recently talking about a colleague of his who lives right next to a tram stop and works right next to another stop on the same tram line. 20 minute tram journey, tram every five minutes at peak time. And instead they drive an hour to work at rush hour, because they&amp;#x27;re from a rural area and are used to driving. Makes no sense to me at all...</text></item><item><author>Nav_Panel</author><text>People are stuck in old modes of thinking about the city. When my parents lived in the city during the 80s, it wasn&amp;#x27;t safe to take the subway. Everybody owned a car, even in Manhattan. Now, none of my (20-something) friends own cars, but I imagine a lot of older people don&amp;#x27;t want to give it up.&lt;p&gt;It does seem pretty nice to drive to work rather than cramming into a subway car for a half hour, even if you&amp;#x27;re stuck in traffic...</text></item><item><author>rthomas6</author><text>This is one of the only places in the US where public transportation is kind of good. Many people in NYC don&amp;#x27;t own a car and don&amp;#x27;t even know how to drive. It boggles my mind the amount of people complaining about how expensive it is to drive to Manhattan. ...Why did you drive in the first place? Unless you need to carry something large&amp;#x2F;heavy, there&amp;#x27;s no real reason to drive there. Just park, take a cab&amp;#x2F;train there, and once you&amp;#x27;re there, it&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;faster&lt;/i&gt; than driving to use the subway to get places.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kuschku</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been using public transportation every day since I&amp;#x27;ve been 18 (before that, I mostly biked), and I just have to disagree. Transit is so much more freedom than driving or biking for me. I don&amp;#x27;t have to care about where I park, or the bike getting stolen, or about being stuck in traffic. Whenever I need to get anywhere, I go to the next spot, wait 5min, and just hop onto the next one. It&amp;#x27;s amazing how much freedom this gives me.</text></comment>
<story><title>Driving a Car in Manhattan Could Cost $11 Under Congestion Plan</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/nyregion/driving-manhattan-congestion-traffic.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hartator</author><text>I think you have to live in big city and have taken public transportation on a daily basis, to understand the frustations, the dalays, the insecurity, the smell, the crowdness, and the freedom reducing of it.</text></item><item><author>rsynnott</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s amazing how habit-forming driving seems to be. A friend was recently talking about a colleague of his who lives right next to a tram stop and works right next to another stop on the same tram line. 20 minute tram journey, tram every five minutes at peak time. And instead they drive an hour to work at rush hour, because they&amp;#x27;re from a rural area and are used to driving. Makes no sense to me at all...</text></item><item><author>Nav_Panel</author><text>People are stuck in old modes of thinking about the city. When my parents lived in the city during the 80s, it wasn&amp;#x27;t safe to take the subway. Everybody owned a car, even in Manhattan. Now, none of my (20-something) friends own cars, but I imagine a lot of older people don&amp;#x27;t want to give it up.&lt;p&gt;It does seem pretty nice to drive to work rather than cramming into a subway car for a half hour, even if you&amp;#x27;re stuck in traffic...</text></item><item><author>rthomas6</author><text>This is one of the only places in the US where public transportation is kind of good. Many people in NYC don&amp;#x27;t own a car and don&amp;#x27;t even know how to drive. It boggles my mind the amount of people complaining about how expensive it is to drive to Manhattan. ...Why did you drive in the first place? Unless you need to carry something large&amp;#x2F;heavy, there&amp;#x27;s no real reason to drive there. Just park, take a cab&amp;#x2F;train there, and once you&amp;#x27;re there, it&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;faster&lt;/i&gt; than driving to use the subway to get places.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>TheCoelacanth</author><text>I have been taking public transportation for my commute for the past three years and I never want to go back to driving. The stress reduction of avoiding traffic is immense.</text></comment>