Bear in mind that you're comparing mostly-decent road transport to generally-awful public transport. Buses, for example, suck - they're always going to be a wo

Bear in mind that you're comparing mostly-decent road transport to generally-awful public transport. Buses, for example, suck - they're always going to be a worse experience than a car (walking 10+ minutes to the stop at each end + waiting, to be stuck in exactly the same traffic). Now if public transport had the same investment as private, it'd be a different kettle of fish. Take a look at http://carfree.com/intro_cfc.html http://carfree.com/intro_cfc.html and http://carfree.com/topology.html http://carfree.com/topology.html as an example of what might be possible with rail and sufficient political will. <5 minutes to a train stop, <30 minutes to anywhere else, <5 minutes to your final destination == max 40 minute trip in a city of 1M people.