How do you think a significant chunk of people outside of US live? Commute in public transit within city limits, go camping in your car… The problem in NA, we planned public transit so bad that it is very inconvenient to do anything. The second it becomes a better choice than driving, it’ll be used even more.

Like it’s a no-brainer for me to ever drive while i’m within the city limits of Vancouver, but for hikes and camping, it’s the obvious choice. Same with metro areas of European cities. I won’t even bring Asian cities as example, because it’s cheating.

Chicken and egg problem in terms of investment and public perception though. Inability to build large scale infrastructure also makes it impossible.

> Commute in public transit within city limits

How does that address my rain question? Cause i'd rather be dry than virtue signal (YMMV)

Raincoats are much cheaper than cars.

It is just… rain? I’m very confused if I’ll be honest. Your jacket gets wet, or you carry an umbrella so you stay dry? It rains 7-8 months of the year here, I genuinely never thought of it as a reason to drive so might be the wrong person to answer. As long as I’m not drenched (never happens unless i’m out for a rainy run on purpose), who cares the jacket will dry once I get in.

I've heard "some people use their 2 ton car as a rain jacket" and thought it was urbanist hyperbole, but here you are.

To the question "what is one of the windmills posters on Hacker News love to tilt at, as if everyone in the world lives in a downtown apartment?"

The kayak can be rented on the other end of your train journey.

That really depends on where you're going. Maybe you want to go to a different lake, or spot on a long river, than the train or bus line goes. Maybe your skill level or body benefit from a specific kayak you own. I think this kind of all or nothing perspective, that seems to presume that _no trips_ should involve a private vehicle are not constructive. (I say this as someone who does not own or regularly drive a car.)

But _most_ trips probably aren't to go kayaking, and I think it's worthy to consider what a shared transit system that could support a meaningfully larger fraction of trips would look like.

Wish for 100% convenience is one of core causes of climate change.

No offense, but it isn't hard to look up how people live in cities and countries with good transit infrastructure. A good starting place might be Netherlands (biking infrastructure coupled with buses and trains) or Switzerland (massive rail network). Here is a wiki page with more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_share