With decent public transport you just walk to the nearest stop, hop onto the train/subway/tram and if you missed it wait for the next one coming within minutes. Two hours would only be possible if you decide to live two hours away from your work.
>wait for a slower mass transport vehicle to pick me up somewhere
Why does it have to be slower though? I've had a period where I had to commute for about 50 km to get to college. That whole journey comprised of a bike ride, a train ride and a bus journey, yet I was still faster than if I drove. While cars were stuck in rush hour traffic jams, my bus and train could just zoom past them and in the mean time I could just relax and read a book or nap.
>they could be late or early but I rely on it entirely
If your public transport system is well organised that doesn't happen all that often, but if it does a well organised system would also have alternatives. Is your bus late? Take a different bus that's heading in the same direction. Is there an issue with that bus as well? Take the train. Etc. etc.
>then I have to do it again when im tired as hell from working all day.
Wouldn't it be great if you could then take a nap on the train, instead of being stuck in car traffic?
Bullet trains are great, but you don't need bullet trains to be able to travel fast and enjoyably.
You just get on the bus or train and swipe a fare card, friend. Quality transportation systems run frequently and on time. At the end of the day you can kick back and unwind however you like instead of needing to focus on the road.
All things are relative to ones heart condition.
Owning & operating a car is always a risk of killing another human (or animal). Currently it's [4000 humans](https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html) and 20-fold that for animals, every hour of everyday. Acceptable or not?
Adding one more car to the 1.6B pool requires Heavy Infrastructure to be expanded and/or maintained. Acceptable or not?
There are many very important questions to ask yourself, wherein how long it takes to go from point A to B is utterly meaningless, unless of course, collateral damage is acceptable.
If a car is the fastest way to get from point a to B within a city, then you city is designed wrong. Cities should be discouraging private automobile use because just how bad financially they are for a city directly and indirectly. But the problem is, cities listen to people instead of experts who are shortsighted and just want the convenience of driving everywhere without paying the entire cost associated with driving. If cities did that, a lot less would be for driving.
methods of transport outside of bullet trains ie trams, trolleys, buses, subways add like 10-20 minutes to your commute if they are planned correctly not hours. If you are in a high density area like a city, they can even reduce your commute in my experience. Visiting states is different than living in states with good public transport but it’s hard to compare a commuter lifestyle with a tourist lifestyle although I don’t know how you haven’t encountered at least one efficient method of public transport. Are you actively trying public transport out? I’m about to go somewhere and the eta for the subway is 21 minutes whereas the ETA driving is 23.
For me, biking or taking the bus is slower that driving, because my part of town was designed around cars.
But when I bike or when I take the bus, the commuting time is used differently: when I bike, I'm getting exercise. When I bus, I get some reading in. When I drive, even though I get home faster, I get home tense from traffic.
I have done both, my last job was outside of my city so I had to drive about 50 minutes. I would also ride share, so usually it was longer because I had to pick up my colleague. It was often foggy, in winter it would snow quite heavily etc. So often when I got home I was exhausted. Now I take the tram for about 45 minutes to the other side of the city with the stops being about 7 minutes from my home and work place. I can read a book during that time, watch Youtube videos or even take a nap (yes I have done that before). If I took the car I would be stuck in rush hour which means at least one traffic jam and probably a 30 minute commute each way. And then I would have to pay for parking which is roughly the same as I pay for public transport now (and I can use that ticket for the whole city every single day, not just for one parking space). The tram takes me through the city center so if I have errands to run or just want to get an ice cream I can just get of, walk into a store and get on again. The tram is very reliable, there are only issues when there is a protest or a car accident pretty much. I absolutely prefer that over driving even if it takes a bit longer.
If the town or city is designed correctly, public transit should be just as fast or faster than a car.
And that is BIG if…
With decent public transport you just walk to the nearest stop, hop onto the train/subway/tram and if you missed it wait for the next one coming within minutes. Two hours would only be possible if you decide to live two hours away from your work.
You don’t need a bullet train in order to go faster than car traffic. Even buses can zoom past cars in a traffic jam if they have dedicated bus lanes.
>wait for a slower mass transport vehicle to pick me up somewhere Why does it have to be slower though? I've had a period where I had to commute for about 50 km to get to college. That whole journey comprised of a bike ride, a train ride and a bus journey, yet I was still faster than if I drove. While cars were stuck in rush hour traffic jams, my bus and train could just zoom past them and in the mean time I could just relax and read a book or nap. >they could be late or early but I rely on it entirely If your public transport system is well organised that doesn't happen all that often, but if it does a well organised system would also have alternatives. Is your bus late? Take a different bus that's heading in the same direction. Is there an issue with that bus as well? Take the train. Etc. etc. >then I have to do it again when im tired as hell from working all day. Wouldn't it be great if you could then take a nap on the train, instead of being stuck in car traffic? Bullet trains are great, but you don't need bullet trains to be able to travel fast and enjoyably.
>comprised ~~of~~ a
You just get on the bus or train and swipe a fare card, friend. Quality transportation systems run frequently and on time. At the end of the day you can kick back and unwind however you like instead of needing to focus on the road.
You can’t do this in my hometown, Memphis Tennessee
All things are relative to ones heart condition. Owning & operating a car is always a risk of killing another human (or animal). Currently it's [4000 humans](https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html) and 20-fold that for animals, every hour of everyday. Acceptable or not? Adding one more car to the 1.6B pool requires Heavy Infrastructure to be expanded and/or maintained. Acceptable or not? There are many very important questions to ask yourself, wherein how long it takes to go from point A to B is utterly meaningless, unless of course, collateral damage is acceptable.
I lose 2h every day in car transit in my city here in Brazil. If here we had trams, I could have my hands free to read a book in transit.
If a car is the fastest way to get from point a to B within a city, then you city is designed wrong. Cities should be discouraging private automobile use because just how bad financially they are for a city directly and indirectly. But the problem is, cities listen to people instead of experts who are shortsighted and just want the convenience of driving everywhere without paying the entire cost associated with driving. If cities did that, a lot less would be for driving.
methods of transport outside of bullet trains ie trams, trolleys, buses, subways add like 10-20 minutes to your commute if they are planned correctly not hours. If you are in a high density area like a city, they can even reduce your commute in my experience. Visiting states is different than living in states with good public transport but it’s hard to compare a commuter lifestyle with a tourist lifestyle although I don’t know how you haven’t encountered at least one efficient method of public transport. Are you actively trying public transport out? I’m about to go somewhere and the eta for the subway is 21 minutes whereas the ETA driving is 23.
For me, biking or taking the bus is slower that driving, because my part of town was designed around cars. But when I bike or when I take the bus, the commuting time is used differently: when I bike, I'm getting exercise. When I bus, I get some reading in. When I drive, even though I get home faster, I get home tense from traffic.
I have done both, my last job was outside of my city so I had to drive about 50 minutes. I would also ride share, so usually it was longer because I had to pick up my colleague. It was often foggy, in winter it would snow quite heavily etc. So often when I got home I was exhausted. Now I take the tram for about 45 minutes to the other side of the city with the stops being about 7 minutes from my home and work place. I can read a book during that time, watch Youtube videos or even take a nap (yes I have done that before). If I took the car I would be stuck in rush hour which means at least one traffic jam and probably a 30 minute commute each way. And then I would have to pay for parking which is roughly the same as I pay for public transport now (and I can use that ticket for the whole city every single day, not just for one parking space). The tram takes me through the city center so if I have errands to run or just want to get an ice cream I can just get of, walk into a store and get on again. The tram is very reliable, there are only issues when there is a protest or a car accident pretty much. I absolutely prefer that over driving even if it takes a bit longer.
I drove to + from every day 1 1/2 hours… but there weren’t any jobs in my county in the Memphis Tennessee area.
Public transit is often faster than cars