I was recently in Vancouver for a month and used transit daily. It's a well oiled machine and not unpleasant to use. This is in stark contrast to my home city,

I was recently in Vancouver for a month and used transit daily. It's a well oiled machine and not unpleasant to use. This is in stark contrast to my home city, a more typically north American city: sprawling, car-centric and any transport mode that isn't a motor vehicle is compromised, and transit system exists to punish people for being poor. Even using a car is compromised because of all the other cars, there's a geometry problem there. Nobody is actually saving time, they're just spending lots of money, running people over and generally making a mess. But you do have a nice, protective shell to segregate you from strangers. My primary experience living in different cities is 'put up with cars or live somewhere else', and I don't even know where this mythical land unsullied by the tyranny of the automobile might be, but I fantasize about it regularly.