Originally Posted by super-douper
If public transit were closer to the speed and convience of driving people would use it. Trouble is that the transit has to get much better or the drive has to get much worse. I'd like nothing better than to live in a city with a good public transit system. But I don't know if such a place exists..
I was having a similar conversation with another person on the "Car Busters" forum. Becoming car free is more of a choice than anything else. You choose where to be car dependant because you're afraid to move or others will mock your car free life style. In the end, you have to make the decision on whether you're going to spend 20 or 30 percent of your lifte time income on transporation costs.
I live in New Jersey which is not exactly the transit capital of the world. But I've managed to become car free by choosing to move several blocks away from a 1.2 billion dollar light rail. Furthermore, there are several bus routes that criss cross where I live with options of taking commuter trains in New York City.
My brother who also lives in New Jersey moved to a location where there is no public transport forcing him and his wife to purchase new cars.
Public transportation does work but you have to relocate as I did several years ago. Today, my total transportation costs per month is a whopping $93.00. That's every month! There are no monthly car payments, insurance, traffic/parking tickets, repair bills or tolls to pay. The state of New Jersey pays for my transportation and repairs the vehicles for me free of charge. That's the way it should be.
Now if I can only get them to repair my bicycles!! ;-)