But do they take public transportation? Or do they use a car service?
They're paying to avoid public transportation exactly like the OP said.
John Paulson, architect of the largest trade in Wall Street history, takes public transit to work every day.
Mostly it's that I work downtown and chose to buy my condo in a neighbourhood with good transit. As a result, driving would "save" me 5 to 10 minutes but require 300$/month parking spot to actually save any time.
If I worked out in an industrial park (where my employer also has an office) driving would be a no-brainer however. Parking out there is free and transit is annoying (bus every 15-30 minutes during rush hour only, multiple connections.) At that office, from my house driving saves 10-15 minutes of commute during rush hour and 15-45 minutes outside of it. In extreme cases (our support staff working the graveyard shift) driving saves 2+ hours or a very expensive taxi ride.
There are a number of factors at play here. To pretend that just because people act a certain way that the decision is based in fact and logic ignores reality.
People don't use public transit because:
1. They don't want to mingle with the "lower classes."
2. Driving a car for a long time was a status symbol. It's less of a status symbol today, but the effects of this are still embedded in American culture. Those "with money" can afford a car. If you take transit, then you are "poor."
So if you take transit you are signalling to others that you are "poor." Or you are afraid that you might have to sit across from someone that is "poor" and that would make you feel uncomfortable.
3. Buying a car for a long time was also "supporting America" (cue people chanting 'USA! USA!') because you were supporting the Big 3.
4. People get annoyed at having to wait for things like the bus. Even of the bus runs every 10 minutes, the fact that you might have to wait 10 minutes for something is enough for people to get upset about it.
Which is my whole point: we should find out what the actual basis for their decision is, and take it into consideration.
But it's much more fun to adopt an air of superiority on HN as you settle into your comfy seat on the bus to the Facebook campus, where your worst immediate problem is that your attractive and personable seatmate has spilled a bit of his latte on your armrest. This is not most peoples' lives, but you'd never know it from reading all of the "B... b... but SF!" comments in these threads.
This particular story is about surburban sprawl, which means that anything happening in SF, NYC, DC, or Boston is completely irrelevant.