> Seems like the doubters were quite right - our ability to go anywhere is now dependent on forking out $25-50K for a car, hundreds of dollars in insurance payments, hundreds of dollars in gas payments, hundreds of dollars in parking, tickets/fines, tolls, registration, licensing.
As opposed to what? Horse and buggy? They required constant work and had very limited range. Automobiles were the first innovation that allowed people to truly go anywhere, and conveniently.
But most people don't go to most places. Streetcars and trains are more efficient at bringing people to places that most people want to go. You can still have a car, but having the option to drive isn't the same as having to drive everywhere.
> Streetcars and trains are more efficient at bringing people to places that most people want to go.
They rarely are. Between walking to the stop, waiting for train/bus, time on train/bus, then walking from the stop - car is almost always faster. Not to mention, all that walking outside in foul weather and sitting in enclosed places with lots of strangers will get you sick regularly. That's my experience, from European cities with good public transport systems.
>Not to mention, all that walking outside in foul weather and sitting in enclosed places with lots of strangers will get you sick regularly.
In my experience your immune system adapts. If you switch you will be a bit more sick for a year, but then you get a stronger immune system and it goes back to normal again.
> Between walking to the stop, waiting for train/bus, time on train/bus, then walking from the stop - car is almost always faster.
Until 100 people want to do the same thing as you, each in their own car. Traffic congestion and parking are painful. Mass transit exists for a reason.
They do an OK job moving at serving capitalism (moving people between sparser residential areas and super dense commercial areas). But for any kind of social gathering (where you'd want to move residential-residential) the system becomes far more complex, and you lose any hope of having a direct connection.
(And that's also ignoring how miserable the last mile problem is.)
As opposed to what? Horse and buggy? They required constant work and had very limited range. Automobiles were the first innovation that allowed people to truly go anywhere, and conveniently.