“The Department of Transportation found that, in 2009, commutes by private car t

“The Department of Transportation found that, in 2009, commutes by private car took, on average, 23 minutes. Public transportation, by contrast, took an average of 53 minutes. “

Public transportation is slow. It’s loud. It’s ugly, and it’s dirty. It’s only suitable for people with very regular schedules. It dampens consumption. It’s absurdly expensive per person – particularly rail. It feeds the public sector bureaucracy. It allows large corporations to get subsidized labor rather than pay increased wages. And frankly, it’s unsanitary. So, it’s all well and good that downtown cores make use of public transportation. But otherwise, we’d be better off giving people zero interest used car loans. I realize some people love it. And as a resident of downtown Boston I appreciated it – when I wasn’t freezing to death in the wind chill. But I don’t have the regular schedule, the extra hour a day to waste, plus the extra time on either side of the work day, nor the time to make separate trips for groceries and what-not. Even in Germany almost eighty percent of the population commutes by car. I’m glad that some people think it’s sensible. But the math doesn’t make sense to me at all.