5 ms·
It’s too much of a hassle to use public transportation. With your own car you can bring as much stuff as you want, stop where you want, leave when you want, go
by blhack 5y ago
It’s too much of a hassle to use public transportation.
With your own car you can bring as much stuff as you want, stop where you want, leave when you want, go wherever you want at your destination, bring whoever you want, listen to what you want on the radio, stop where you want for side trips/tourist things along the way etc.
Like for instance with my own car instead of a shared train, I can bring my golf clubs, my dog, and my drone with me, and call my friend on the way out of town to see if he’s up for a spontaneous trip to San Diego to see what fun we could get up to there for the weekend. That’s not really possible on a train/airplane.
It’s just a totally different experience than arriving to a train station with some limited set of your things, possibly being late, then arriving somewhere else again without a car, and having to return again by doing all of this in reverse.
It also means spending time forced to socialize with people you don’t know, and almost definitely in a seat that is less comfortable than the one in your $100k luxury car.
- darkwater 5y ago> With your own car you can bring as much stuff as you want, stop where you want, leave when you want, go wherever you want at your destination, bring whoever you want, listen to what you want on the radio, stop where you want for side trips/tourist things along the way etc. Also, you can get blocked in a traffic jam when you don't want.
- kiliantics 5y agoThe vast majority of car trips are nothing like this though. Why don't we build more trains to take people on their usual short commutes and save cars for the occasional fun trips like this?
- mlyle 5y agoBecause of the last mile problem. US population density is typically low, even in many cities. This means that any reasonable spending on buses and train routes ends up with relatively infrequent service to places not too close to you. This is self-reinforcing, too. Everyone taking cars for all trips means you need lots of space for parking and roadways, which spreads things out and makes walking and transit less practical.