Originally Posted by
mr,grumpy
It's my own, odd personal view that no matter how one chooses to get around there should be a certain amount of autonomy to it. Cars or bikes, or even walking are fine (in my mind) whereas standing around waiting of a train or bus is not. Here's a fun fact, if the local computer train is running ON TIME, it takes LONGER to get to the City (outskirts: there is no train directly to the city center) than driving in normal-bad rush hour traffic and costs MORE than the cost of fuel and parking to drive into town. And, once you get into the city by train, you still have to get a bus or subway to where you need to be. There is NO public transit that links the smaller cities that ring the main city. You have to go all the way in and then all the way back out.
It's not really an issue of autonomy. When you drive you are not completely autonomous as you are not going wherever you want at your own speed. You are relying on society to provide roads that go somewhere close to where you need them to go and traffic lights and police and a whole raft of other services that aid you, but also partly determine your route and speed. If I choose to drive down Bathurst instead of Ossington, and have to wait at a series of traffic lights, are my choices more autonomous than if I chose the Yonge subway over the Mt. Pleasant express bus and had to wait a few minutes at the station? Really the differences are in convenience and cost to ourselves and others, not autonomy.