There is a balance to be struck though. For example where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are millions of people whose commutes are objectively fast

There is a balance to be struck though. For example where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are millions of people whose commutes are objectively faster and cheaper on the BART train, but the vast majority of commuters still choose to drive a personal vehicle over a congested and expensive toll bridge. The primary reason for this is that the train is just so damn unpleasant for a multitude of reasons (including noise) that most people find the extra wasted hour worth it to them to have a more pleasant commute. Whenever the agency that runs the train proposes spending more money on things like human excrement abatement, noise abatement, etc. people complain and protest about mismanagement and money wasting, so nothing ever gets better and the infrastructure continues to be underutilized.