This isn't true if you are in a dense city with good public transit. This is currently mid day (3 PM), and it's about 30% faster (21 minutes vs 29 minutes) to go from my current location in Manhattan to a bar I enjoy hanging out in Brooklyn via public transit than car, according to Google Maps. It would be even better around rush hour.
I don't see how it is 'inherently' the slowest, especially given the traffic patterns that inherently result from private transit options.
>> I have no desire to make 10 stops before I get where I'm going.
The point of public transit in the form of e-scooters and e-bikes is to make your door-to-door commute one trip.
>> I also have zero desire to rent my modes, as that encourages literally rent seeking behavior.
Most people just care about convenience and price. Shared mobility options like e-bikes and e-scooters check both boxes if they can reach scale.
In a lot of cities, driving is not faster. It's just sometimes the only option.
This is certainly true where I live -- public transit is the slowest by a large margin. Driving is generally the next slowest, depending on the exact trip. Bicycling tends to be the quickest.
I lives in Vietnam, where scooters are dominant. It is even less compact than car on the road.
This is even more confusing for companies like "scoot" that rent both "scooters" and "kick scooters"
Either we need to figure out how to drop off and pickup passengers at speed, or penalize individualized transport that is space inefficient (like cars). Good luck pursuing the latter in the US; punitive measure seem to work elsewhere.
I think the way forward is compact private transport, like bikes, scooters, walking, etc, augmented by a robust mass public transit. Unfortunately, that mix implies a expensive re-configuring of most American cities.