But I didn't comment whether San Francisco is like this or not, I commented on the idea that this places can't possible exist.
Which was not an idea anyone (except maybe you) had.
Only in the largest cities. And it's the same in the US.
But now look at the medium sized cities in Europe.
> Vienna, Austria
By the standards of the US Vienna is incredibly dense. There are only about 15 US cites that have similar population density.
Plus it's huge - over a million people. In NY the public transport is also that good. But there are only 10 cities that large in the US.
Second, you are wrong. Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective, and the metro is not needed (I hope the reason why not is obvious). Also, here in Austria at least, the trains are really good, really fast, and really, really frequent, and you can just take the metro to the big city center with the same ticket (something you can't do with cars, because cars are not allowed in the center).
Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.
This notion that you need a car to move around town or buy groceries is an american concept and seems preposterous to us, europeans. Cars have their uses, obviously, but these are not their primary use here.
My comment wasn't. These rants about getting rid of cars are evergreen, and they always ignore the same issues.
NY for example is exactly like your comment - you can do just fine there without a car. But there are only about 10-15 cities like that in the US.
> Medium cities are just like the big cities except without the metro system. Trams and busses are just as good and effective
Only if the population density is high. Otherwise there is not enough demand for constant service.
> Very small towns and don't need public transport because it takes 10 minute to cross them by foot.
Have you ever been in the US? It can take 20 minutes by car to cross a small city because they are very spread out.
The whole reason to live in a small city is so you get a lot of land. No one is interested in living in a small village type city which is small (in population) but you only get small piece of land - cities like that are dying constantly in the US because people don't want to live there.
I live in Vienna, Austria where elderly and families with many children use public transport and carry whatever they need to carry. Bus and tram stations are not miles away, they are 150m away, and came at 3-10minutes intervals In the metros you can even carry large items easily, like bikes, for free.
Also in Europe we have supermarkets at every block, we don't have to do our groceries miles away.