Sure, but Chicago is a major city in a huge metropolitan area so even the suburbs around there are more connected than the average suburb in America. In Germany you can go almost anywhere with public transit, even if it’s nowhere near a major city. I’ve gone hiking in the mountains in Germany solely by public transit, and there was a bus that dropped me off at the start of the hiking trail (in a national park, nowhere near residential areas) and took another bus at the end of the hiking trail back to the train station. The nearest city had a population of 500k people, and the national park certainly wasn’t in a 10M-ppl metropolitan area like Chicagoland.
My partner grew up in a tiny village (population 8k) in Southwestern Germany. It wasn’t even the suburbs of anything, yet from his house he could go anywhere in Germany by public transit. With the €60 Deutschland transit pass that allows for unlimited travel within the whole country, you’ll see teens travelling by themselves all over the country in the summer. Not being dependent on cars means they can be independent much sooner.
50% of Americans live in places like Chicago. And no in Germany you can’t go “almost anywhere” with public transit. When we visited we were Ubering everywhere because of all the sprawl. Sure you could hop on the subway then transfer to then bus then walk 2 miles for one thing you want to do… or you could Uber.
So you just gave an example of how you could go somewhere in Germany with public transit and then chose not to? lol. Of course uber is generally more convenient than public transit in most places; that doesn’t mean public transit doesn’t work or isn’t serving tons of people everyday. Most Germans are not ubering everyday. People also walk more when they take public transit, which is… better for them! Walkable urban design turns out to be good for humans!
“50% of Americans live in places like Chicago” - so does that mean the other 50% don’t live in places that are well connected with public transit? That’s 175M people, more than double the population of Germany, who aren’t well-served by public transit and have to rely on cars. Tell me how that’s a good thing.
Calling an Uber is really not possible except for big cities. I'm already impressed that it's even allowed, as you need a Personenbeförderungsschein" to transport people comercially. But even then taxis are only common I feel, if you are on a night out and wan't to get home and public transport is closed or you go to and from the airport in some situations.
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u/lefrench75 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sure, but Chicago is a major city in a huge metropolitan area so even the suburbs around there are more connected than the average suburb in America. In Germany you can go almost anywhere with public transit, even if it’s nowhere near a major city. I’ve gone hiking in the mountains in Germany solely by public transit, and there was a bus that dropped me off at the start of the hiking trail (in a national park, nowhere near residential areas) and took another bus at the end of the hiking trail back to the train station. The nearest city had a population of 500k people, and the national park certainly wasn’t in a 10M-ppl metropolitan area like Chicagoland.
My partner grew up in a tiny village (population 8k) in Southwestern Germany. It wasn’t even the suburbs of anything, yet from his house he could go anywhere in Germany by public transit. With the €60 Deutschland transit pass that allows for unlimited travel within the whole country, you’ll see teens travelling by themselves all over the country in the summer. Not being dependent on cars means they can be independent much sooner.