Originally Posted by
rbrian
Despite what I've heard about America's love affair with the car, it's still hard to believe that many of you don't have alternatives when I see them here every day.
I know it is hard for you to believe but there really are no alternatives in many US locations. No public transit of any kind, period. Or, more commonly, very poorly-funded public transit that is unreliable. When combined with the general social stigma attached to using public transit it is much more difficult than in Scotland.
Also, there are some historical causes as well--you must consider that many rural areas of the US are much more geographically isolated than any place in the UK or Europe simply because of the sheer quantity of land, and that most of the development here occurred later in the 20th century after car travel was already convenient (unlike many towns in western Europe which were developed in the 18th and 19th centuries and thus are somewhat concentrated geographically).