Seriously, yes. There is a certain kind of "Professional Online European" who loves to come into discussions and talk about how things are different "in Europe"

Seriously, yes. There is a certain kind of "Professional Online European" who loves to come into discussions and talk about how things are different "in Europe" based on their existence within the Grachtengordel of Amsterdam or their lives in one of the nice bits of Paris. If you want to know the domestic political result of that kind of attitude, and one that is quite related to the issues of who needs a car or not - the Giles Jaunes are the perfect example. Even in those European countries that generally have good public transportation, it is simply not the case that nobody needs a car. Many Dutch people I know who commute to work on their bikes also have cars. Anywhere outside the Randstad in NL, not having a car can be majorly inconvenient. In large parts of Groningen, Drenthe or Friesland it will be a substantial barrier to employment. Try living in Workum without a car. I hope you like Jopie Huisman because you're about to become reaaal familiar with his drawings as a sole form of entertainment. In France, a political elite (btw all of whom do have cars) imposed a fuel tax increase on a population of outer-suburban and rural lower-middle-class workers who have to drive to work. Great result that had. I think this is important for Americans to understand because if they have pinned their understanding of the art of the possible in terms of what has been done in Europe they should understand that putting in a better bus system is not a panacea and that some places are structurally just not going to be reachable with public transport.