Not even the best public transportation lets you travel fully on your terms. You are still dictated by it’s schedule and route, and the presence of other people

Not even the best public transportation lets you travel fully on your terms. You are still dictated by it’s schedule and route, and the presence of other people who may or may not be nice traveling companions. You have to wait in the rain, snow, or heat (less bad if transit sticks to schedule, but US transit often does so poorly). That said, I could happily embrace living without a car and using just transit in a city like Tokyo or Seoul. But I don’t feel the same doing so in any city (or metro region) in the US - not even NYC which supposedly has the “best” public transit in the country, but still leaves a lot to be desired.