Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US

this video might as well have been made by GM given the car washing done on US history in this video

Lol. Idiots can't afford a car? I'm poor, and I can afford a car. It's not hard dude. Get a job. When I go to the us, I rent a car. They can't have public transport with a nation that size. Again, poor ppl can get cars, dumb poor ppl can't.

Owning a car has gotten so expensive

We love freedom. You socialists wouldn't understand.

As a resident of Utah, UTA, and the Street cards are really effective, but are not good in areas that get Bad traffic, but it is a good system

The fact that car ownership is at a record low for young people is telling. The demand is there; we just need to build the infrastructure for public transportation, so that the demand will be met.

Street cars are very much a great transportation system. Look at Melbourne Australia and its tram network. Connects the whole city that has a greater population then LA and San Francisco combined

Most of the top American cities doesn't bother to subsidize public transportation because it doesn't generate more revenue than it costs.

Public transportation sucks because you don't get your own vehicle and instead have to do transportation with the general public. Public transportation is also a whole lot slower than having your own vehicle. Public transportation also sucks because there is no reasonable and sustainable way to make public transportation points reach most of the places that you want to be. I would feel super poor and powerless if I had to use public transportation.

wow

9030 MILES ? 500030 Miles ? Such an idiot you are.

american cities werent built for the car. they were bulldozed for the car. people will choose whatevers most convenient to get from A to B. tokyo: train, amsterdam: bike, us cities: car. most NYers take the train not because they dont care about freedom. its just most convenient. also, european cities were rebuilt at the same time as US cities after the war, since most of the cities were flattened by bombing

The answer - CAPITALISM

"Only peasants walk."

Being conveyed by owning a horse, having a carriage was luxury and power in every country of origin we as Americans come from. Without it, people will spend their rntire lives within 5 miles of their homes.

Coming to America and moving through it's expsnde meant getting transportation: a horse. Horse stealing was the only crime that would get you hung without a trial.

Given that deep cultural value, we're not investing in public transit any time soon.

The biggest secret about America is that it is a peasant culture and sensibility st its core: too much meat, fat, sugar and salt; acquisitive by nature, but frugal (pennywise and pound foolish is the usual resukt). All the things the landed gentry had in our countries of origin.

The indiana\scotland comparison isn't fair. Indiana is a huge city in the middle of it {Indianapolis) surrounded by sparsly populated farm land. There's less bus routes cuz there's no where to go lol

my home is too far away from the city center. Also, there are no bus stops nearby. Sometimes I have to drive my car when I want to go out.

This is precisely why it should alarm everyone that the US government's solution to climate change as it pertains to transportation is not to invest in and subsidize better local and national transit systems so as to reduce the need for cars, but to simply ban gas-powered cars outright and force everyone to switch to more expensive, less efficient electric vehicles. That alone should tell you that the government's true goal is not to fight climate change, but something far more sinister: to restrict the movements of the lower classes. When only the rich can afford the newly mandated cars, while there exist no other alternatives for the poor, you effectively transform lower class neighborhoods and even entire rural towns into ghettos. They become prisons for those who live there, and when the people can't escape, they become that much easier to control.

Most Americans are taught to believe that only government should provide PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Which is a political plum to the parties and a cash cow for the government. You don’t see anyone advocating PRIVATE ENTERPRISE MASS TRANSIT.
If America wanted to get back on track, the remedy is simple - ZERO subsidy (no taxpayer funding) and ZERO penalty (no taxes). Capital seeking tax exempt profits will flow into rail development, and companies will only make money when they move passengers from “A” to “B” - not fulfill some politician’s agenda.
And it won’t cost the taxpayers a dime.

Though the propaganda line claims Americans "wanted" automobiles, the fact that their rail option was cut off is ignored. It is ironic, that in "rail friendly" Europe, car ownership is HIGHER per capita than in "car-centric" USA. It's the reason why Americans expend far more energy for transportation, hence spend more of their budget on automobiles and related expenses. In America, the typical household budget has the automobile as #2, after housing. Whereas in Europe, automobiles show up as #3 and #4 on a household budget. In short, they have a HIGHER STANDARD of living, thanks to cheaper rail transport.

luckily here in Indiana we have these things called cars that we buy and own to take us where-ever we please I really is extraordinary. the scotts should look into this.

Simple answer everybody has a car. Your not supposed to rely on the government as much as other country’s

US is set around freedom, LOL, it's set around capitalism, your only freedom is working for rich assholes. You are slaves for the rich, that is your freedom.

I am going to to use this next line at my city meeting " I do I get around without a Car?"

Another factor I’ve found in my travels is that while Europeans/Asians see public transport as transport for everyone, Americans (putting aside NYC/Boston/DC you mentioned) see it more as welfare for the poor; part of the mindset you highlighted that car equals freedom equals success. Glad that this attitude is changing with my generation!

Thank You From I As The State Of Arizona!

Canada has exactly the same problem.

to make everyone drive cars

Reliable Public transit = more people walking
More people walking = they take notice of stores they used to drive past by
They take notice = more business for the shops
More business = less money being spent outside of the town
More money in the town = town prospers
Town prospers = More business can appear to fill the demand.

Now people don't need to leave to get what they need. They can just walk/bike or take the bus/streetcar to their destination.

What if we continue car dependency?
Using cars = less need for public transit
Less need = more people ignoring stores
Ignoring stores = less business
Less business = business leave or shut down
Businesses are gone = People spend money outside of the town
People spending outside the town = town declines
Adding less but large sized stores = People come back
People come back = Prices go up
Prices go up = People can't afford it
People can't afford it = Goes back to people spending outside of the town
Town declines = People can't keep up with their payments
No payments = People leave
Add the rich to vacant homes = Town stays alive for a little bit
The rich leave after prices go up again = Town dies

Sorry what do you mean "LA grew up around the car" and the city is built for the car - it was rebuilt for the car. LA was already vast and had a public transit system before it was destroyed and remade in the image of the car! That wasn't a thing that "just happened" it was specific policy choices that made it that way

Because we care more about privacy here in America,public transport have no privacy

Plus not health insurance, no safety
Simply a SH
A completely disaster..

You’re really overhyping the streetcars. I live in a city (Milwaukee) that has one of these. The amount of money that our city wastes on this is absurd. Most of the time when I see it chugging on the road, there’s easily less than five people. It would be much cheaper to have a bus. You also mentioned that it creates jobs, but why do we need a person operating a trolly that doesn’t carry anyone? It’s a waste of money.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not anti-mass-transit and I do believe that you’ve brought up a lot of good points in the video regarding US zoning laws that contribute to this issue. My stance is that we need to privatize and deregulate. It’s not a crazy idea. NCY’s subway system started out as a private company but went out of business because the local government put price caps on their fairs (once again, regulations hurt). The solution to this issue is to stop incentivizing cities built around automobiles and the private sector will take care of mass transit so that way the government doesn’t have to force it.

The problem is we don't have many transit oriented development. In Hong Kong, you have high dense apartments and shopping centers right above the Subway/Train Stations. If I have to drive to the station from home, and find a way to connect between the station and work, why don't I just drive all the way to work?

Lacking public transportation is the #2 reason I definitely don't wanna live in the USA (#1 is the absence of public healthcare system). Europe definitely did their homework. I lived for a year in Grenoble, France, and the streetcar is the major actor in public transportation there. It serves very well the city and areas next to it are very highlighted. Public transportation (and also bikes) is a major necessity, as important as education and health

This makes me very sad.

You know its bad when a rural place like Cornwall has public transport on par with American major cities.

How can the car be the only option when so many people do not have that option? Too young, too old, too ill, disabled, banned from driving etc?

The US doesn't have the density of most European cities. That makes public transportation very expensive to run.

It also results in poor people walking 4 - 6 hours a day to get to or from a job.

access to transportation doesn’t mean public transportation. it can also mean cheap car ownership, which is very doable in north america. plus you get an asset you can sell. you can buy actual cars for 1000$ that don’t consume a lot of gas and own them for a few years which is very cheap. it’s what am doing. i don’t wanna have to rely on public transport and i don’t want more of my hard earned tax money to be spent on public transport which i don’t use. plus you can bet your money that the more they invest in public transport the more they will artificially try to make it hard to own a car. just look at gas prices here in quebec, most of the price of gas is just taxes. i like my personal freedom of owning a car and being able to go anywhere. i don’t wanna have to be standing in a communal box full of sweaty people every morning and afternoon for 45 minutes. i want to drive my car on smooth roads and go zoom everywhere i can as God intended

I love how the video starts off by debunking the stupid "murica is big" excuse. I see it still pops up in the comments because people are stupid and watching a video before commenting is apparently hard, but I appreciate them for doing it. You get the same collection of stupid knee-jerk excuses and arguments in every one of these discussions and it's good that you're trying to pre-empt them.

Unfortunately Boston, NYC, and DC are astronomically expensive

When choosing a place to live in the US, I make sure there is accessible public transit nearby.

Public transportation??
The authorities that run it don't have to use it in the United States
I suggest they do like we did in the military
Leaders or the officers wouldn't do anything that they wouldn't have their enlisted people to do
SO THEY NEED TO HAVE IT IN WRITING THAT THEY MANDATORY RIDE THE BUS 🚌 AT LEAT 2 MONTHS OR MORE TO WORK
MAYBE THAT WILL MAKE THEM DEVISE A WAY TO SEE HOW CRAZY THEIR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SERVICE IS AND MAKE IMPROVEMENTS

I wouldn't feel safe taking public transportation in most of America's cities now due to our homeless and drug problems.

Transit in Scotland isn't even that great by European standards- it is often infrequent in places, often takes long winding routes or requires multiple transfers- often at a hub that is in the wrong direction from where you actually want to go, it is expensive (especially the trains) and all the buses get stuck in traffic anyway. But it does exist and you can probably reach most populated areas by bus if you need to or take a bike on the train so few places would be impossible to reach if you were determined, I mean I complain that our area has no buses on a Sunday at all )you can walk 20 minutes to a neighbouring area to a stop that gets 4 buses on a Sunday, and we are near Motherwell, a large town in the central belt about 10 miles from Glasgow in a densely populated area. You can ride a bike into town ut the main roads aren't a great place to be so everyone just uses the pavement but most people just get a car- so even though you can live without a car, we have a long way to make it comfortable to live without a car.

People forget that the US is bigger than the Europe continent itself so saying that the US should instantly build a transportation system is laughable becuz how big US is

Why own a car?
Reasons
1. You can go anytime anywhere whenever you like.
2. No more waiting in the very cold or hot weather sometimes for hours. While traffic can be bad at least you can sit comfortably in your car and adjust the A/C.
3. It is faster than buses.
4. Little to no walking required between places.
5. No need to worry about driver strikes.
6. Sometimes public transport is very delayed or dosent run at all.
7. No random people starring at you or giving up your seat.
Reasons why owning a car is a must if you can afford it!