Originally Posted by himespau

Yeah, I grew up in Michigan. Spent 12 years in East Lansing going to college. Their public transit system (CATA) was clean and took me where I wanted to go. Far out it wasn't super frequent, but it was my first experience with public transit, and I liked it. Wasn't too expensive. Of course, when I got my BS and an off campus apartment, I did the normal thing and bought a car which I had for most of my grad school. My last year I depended on CATA again and did OK (prices had gone up, service had gone down a bit over the course of 8 years and living at the end of a spoke rather than near a hub made getting to things a little more difficult). For a low density metropolitan area, it did the job.

Then I moved to Boston for 4-5 years, went car free and didn't miss a thing. Well, that's not quite true, often leaving when it was still dark out and coming home in the dark many days and travelling the green and red lines I missed sunlight of above ground, so I often sought out bus and shuttle routes which, while they may have taken a little longer, made me feel a bit more human by seeing the sky somehow. I can't really explain it. Then commuting by bike in the summer was really nice (though it brought out my aggressive side that I didn't know I had when I got angry at drivers and I'm sure it wasn't great for my blood pressure).

Now in Louisville, I'd love to commute via bike, but the most direct route is 13 miles each way (not a big deal I know but that's time away from my two small kids every day where now I get to spend the commute with them in the car while my wife and I trade off driving duties) and I have yet to find a way that doesn't involve long stretches of high volume 45+mph traffic on roads with no shoulders (and often wooded and curvy so no long sight lines).

Even growing up in Michigan, I was just never a big one for driving. I don't know if it was being a passenger in too many accidents as a kid or what, but the responsibility and need to be paying attention at all times when I'd rather be putting my attention to other things was just never fun for me. I never understood the appeal of "cruising" - though as an introvert/loner/whatever my lack of social awareness may have had something to do with that. The only time that I can say I ever really enjoyed driving was going up the west coast of the mitten and around the UP with my wife while camping when we were dating/first married. Lots of beautiful scenery and not too much other traffic. So yeah, even though I grew up in the car culture, I never got it and am kind of bummed to be back in it living in the unconnected suburbs.