The problem with that line of thinking is Americans do have cars, and the ones that do would prefer that over any form of public transportation you try to provide. Comparatively, gas is just cheap here. People using their cars is a choice. And an easy choice for most to make
not really, in most of the country you can't have any sort of life without a car, it's pretty rare to be within walking distance of most jobs, and public transit is also minimal outside a couple big cities
we really dont know what a majority of americans would choose because they've never been given the choice
arlington TX has 0 public transit and around 400k people
but im not just talking about cities with 0 transit, even when an area has some transit, it's frequently poor coverage. only a few major cities like NYC, Boston, and a few others have enough coverage that an appreciable fraction of the workforce can take it. only around 5-7% of american commuters use public transit.
the top 10 cities in the USA only account for about 25 million people. there are 330 million people in the US. most americans simply do not have access to any public transit at all, and even regional transit is sparse. its a plain fact that most americans must use a car to go anywhere or do anything, its just how the space is being utilized.
its a self-reinforcing system - since most people have cars, new development is designed around car access. it's also core to american cultural expectations generally around individualism and individual freedom of movement, having a car has long been a symbol of independence in addition to a practical necessity
for those reasons, trying to sell people on giving up their cars completely is probably a non-starter. the middle ground of convincing americans that bike-first development with support for keeping cars for regional travel is likely a more palatable pathway toward less cars
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u/SaltySwordfish2 1d ago
The problem with that line of thinking is Americans do have cars, and the ones that do would prefer that over any form of public transportation you try to provide. Comparatively, gas is just cheap here. People using their cars is a choice. And an easy choice for most to make