4 ms·

>Being free from public transport timetables and the ability to go anywhere on a whim are so precious. You can't do that with cars though at any time. Because

>Being free from public transport timetables and the ability to go anywhere on a whim are so precious. You can't do that with cars though at any time. Because there is traffic and parking spaces to deal with. Unless you're only going to big super markets like Target or a shopping center and you've never encountered this problem, you really can't go anywhere cool while driving. Please don't mention something like taking your car to a national park or something. That's what car rentals are for.

yellowapple 7y ago
> there is traffic and parking spaces to deal with In my observation (living in the SF Bay Area for almost a year now), being stuck in traffic is usually still faster than public transit (unless you're lucky enough for all your destinations to be near a BART stop and lucky enough for your home to also be near a BART stop; as soon as you throw in Muni or SamTrans or CalTrain you're looking at much longer travel times even excluding the time loafing about waiting for the next leg of the trip to arrive). Parking is indeed a problem, but if you think about it, plenty of people do manage to find parking spaces (obviously, since people are parked in them), so you just gotta be prepared to wait for one to open up (or find one a bit further out; helps when there are plenty of parking garages around). > you really can't go anywhere cool while driving. You can't with public transit, either, unless "anywhere cool" happens to be on the transit route and you're going there (and going home afterward) during that route's hours. > Please don't mention something like taking your car to a national park or something. That's what car rentals are for. lol. That's also what owning your own vehicle is for, plus being able to use it day-to-day for things. When I first moved to SF, I did so without a car, forcing myself to get used to BART and Muni (and learned very quickly that Muni's timetables are illusory at best, but that's a story for another day). It's fine until you need to haul something (like me trying to haul a bunch of desktop parts back from Fry's) or need to go somewhere outside of the transit agency's service area or before/after their normal operating hours (like me trying to do a lot of things in the city). Thankfully, I didn't get rid of my car, and as soon as I moved to a place with better parking I retrieved my car and I've been quite a bit happier ever since (though not happy enough to continue to want to live in/around SF, but that's also a story for another day).
- estebank 7y ago
  The sfba transit is terrible. When people advocate for transit we are advocating for better transit than what is available here.
- kadendogthing 7y ago
  >either, unless "anywhere cool" happens to be on the transit route and you're going there Most urban areas are where actually legit "nifty"/cool/worthwhile restaurants/attractions/parks/etc are (for a reason). The latter is often positioned on the former. Feel free to map highly rated (even highly rated AND expensive restaurants) restaurants in proximity to public transit areas for a quick example. It's not an accident. >When I first moved to SF, I don't think comparing the public transportation of a city notorious for its NIMBYism and catering to one particular class of society is a good idea. Certainly no one has ever used SF as an example of a metro that has good public transportation.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    > I don't think comparing the public transportation of a city notorious for its NIMBYism and catering to one particular class of society is a good idea Why not? It's a realistic example, and it seems like a lot of American cities have similar problems. It's fine to speculate on how much better the world would be in an ideal universe with robust mass transit and spherical cows, but right now we're talking about the actual cost of living differences in actual cities.

yellowapple 7y ago

> there is traffic and parking spaces to deal with In my observation (living in the SF Bay Area for almost a year now), being stuck in traffic is usually still faster than public transit (unless you're lucky enough for all your destinations to be near a BART stop and lucky enough for your home to also be near a BART stop; as soon as you throw in Muni or SamTrans or CalTrain you're looking at much longer travel times even excluding the time loafing about waiting for the next leg of the trip to arrive). Parking is indeed a problem, but if you think about it, plenty of people do manage to find parking spaces (obviously, since people are parked in them), so you just gotta be prepared to wait for one to open up (or find one a bit further out; helps when there are plenty of parking garages around). > you really can't go anywhere cool while driving. You can't with public transit, either, unless "anywhere cool" happens to be on the transit route and you're going there (and going home afterward) during that route's hours. > Please don't mention something like taking your car to a national park or something. That's what car rentals are for. lol. That's also what owning your own vehicle is for, plus being able to use it day-to-day for things. When I first moved to SF, I did so without a car, forcing myself to get used to BART and Muni (and learned very quickly that Muni's timetables are illusory at best, but that's a story for another day). It's fine until you need to haul something (like me trying to haul a bunch of desktop parts back from Fry's) or need to go somewhere outside of the transit agency's service area or before/after their normal operating hours (like me trying to do a lot of things in the city). Thankfully, I didn't get rid of my car, and as soon as I moved to a place with better parking I retrieved my car and I've been quite a bit happier ever since (though not happy enough to continue to want to live in/around SF, but that's also a story for another day).

estebank 7y ago
The sfba transit is terrible. When people advocate for transit we are advocating for better transit than what is available here.
kadendogthing 7y ago
>either, unless "anywhere cool" happens to be on the transit route and you're going there Most urban areas are where actually legit "nifty"/cool/worthwhile restaurants/attractions/parks/etc are (for a reason). The latter is often positioned on the former. Feel free to map highly rated (even highly rated AND expensive restaurants) restaurants in proximity to public transit areas for a quick example. It's not an accident. >When I first moved to SF, I don't think comparing the public transportation of a city notorious for its NIMBYism and catering to one particular class of society is a good idea. Certainly no one has ever used SF as an example of a metro that has good public transportation.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  > I don't think comparing the public transportation of a city notorious for its NIMBYism and catering to one particular class of society is a good idea Why not? It's a realistic example, and it seems like a lot of American cities have similar problems. It's fine to speculate on how much better the world would be in an ideal universe with robust mass transit and spherical cows, but right now we're talking about the actual cost of living differences in actual cities.