Just give me some land outside of the city, where I can’t really see or hear my neighbors, where I have enough space for an enormous garden, lots of native plants for the butterflies and bees, and a giant workshop. Starry skies at night shared with my wife and a dog or two.

And since I have the space, maybe a sauna and cold plunge would be nice. You know, stretch goals.

I did this for a few years but it got lonely. Now I draw energy from being around people, and walking to do things has lowered my blood pressure and weight. Subways and regional trains also allow me to live a larger radius.

Haven't used public transport in a long time. I used it to commute in the past but stopped using it during COVID.

Can't say I miss it. Prefer to just leave when I want, go where I want and stay there as long as I want. All while not enjoying other peoples music and smell or waiting at a platform for ages.

> Prefer to just leave when I want, go where I want and stay there as long as I want.

Which you can do with a good public transport system! You should not have to wait for a subway train for more than 5 minutes. Ideally no more than 1-2.

A subway is only for local trips. And only a very small part of the world has subways. I have never lived in a place with a subway. I did briefly live in Amsterdam but the subway wasn't very useful there.

With private transport I can go anywhere on the continent whenever I want.

Edit: reply to flexagoon since I am rate limited:

Going around Europe on trains is a total pain. There is a reason almost nobody does that and use airplanes instead.

Perhaps they can make the comfort of trains comparable with airplanes, so more people use it.

I'm OK with allocating tax money for better public transport but I just don't see myself using it.

Of course, I don't think anyone in this thread is advocating for banning private transport and only keeping public transit for everything. But most of the trips people take are local, and a good public transport system makes that much better for everyone (including the car drivers).

You can also go around the continent on trains. We should have more high speed rail.

Private transport is of course still hugely useful for many cases, but there are also many cases where it could easily be replaced for many people by a good transit system. And I'm not just talking about the US, which people usually give as an example of bad transit. EU's railway network should be much better.

With good enough public transit, you can do all that. When I lived in Seattle, I did not bother looking at the bus schedule before leaving, because usually I was waiting less than 10 minutes.

Must be nice, I have not encountered such public transport in the places I lived in Europe.

It's 0:45 currently. I want to grab an ice cream at McDonalds. Next bus leaves at 1:25. It takes the bus 20 minutes to get there and then it is a 5 minute walk. It is also a 10 minute walk to the bus station in my neighborhood. And since it's past 22:00 there are probably a bunch of crazies on the bus. Also a high chance of puke and trash in the bus.

Why would I do that if I can grab my bike and it is only a 10 minute ride.

You probably wouldn't, just like you wouldn't drive your car to visit your next door neighbor.

I wouldn't use public transport to visit my next door neighbor.

Right. Did you think I was suggesting you would? I was trying to use an analogy to illustrate that different modes of transportation are complementary. You don't need a bus for a 10 minute bike trip.

Ok boomer

Millennial actually.