I'm a bit disappointed in HN that you got downvoted. Your first sentence might be inflammatory, but you do follow it up with completely valid criticisms, all of

I'm a bit disappointed in HN that you got downvoted. Your first sentence might be inflammatory, but you do follow it up with completely valid criticisms, all of which I always remind people of when they try to sell me on public transit. An additional refinement on comfort is temperature (and, I'm sure, for some locales, humidity). No matter what ones preference, that's also a roll of the dice. If it's a train, and you're lucky enough to be on a system that allows it, you could try moving between cars in search of your personal Goldilocks Zone, but that can mean sacrificing a seat and may not be feasible with luggage. Now, here's an alternative (or wishful thinking): business class. This already exists in air travel (privatized public transit) and on some commuter rail lines (semi-privatized in the US?). I think it's telling that, especially on short-haul flights there's a tendency for first class sections on planes to get smaller or disappear entirely (or never exist in the first place on no-frills airlines), but I don't wish for first class luxury. I would only want what you mention: privacy, consistent comfort, or even a seat (a guaranteed one), with the possible addition of amenities such as electrical outlets and internet. I have a theory as to why it's merely wishful thinking and would never "fly", which I'll share if anyone's interested. There's another major problem that I see with public transit (in the sense of the proposed utopia), and that's that enough people actually want to live in suburbs, where it's way too expensive to run even a halfway decent transit system. The last major problem that I think is inadequately addressed, is freedom, although you touched on it by mentioning privacy. Cars grant the greatest freedom of movement we have available. A car allows someone to go almost anywhere almost any time at remarkably high speed with modest incremental (monetary) cost and little to no advance planning or notice required. Of course, whether this on-a-whim freedom is desireable/beneficial on a macro is debatable, but I think it's pretty clear it's desireable by individuals. In the densest cities with the best transit systems during peak hours, using that system can replicate (and even surpass!) this freedom of movement. However, that falls apart if ones trip extends outside of those peak hours or outside the city[1]. [1] This is, at times, considered a feature by some US suburbs in that it makes it effectively impossible for poor people from the city to come out to their neighborhoods, though this may seem weird to us in booming cities where land close to the center is most expensive and is cheapest at the outskirts.