> In Atlanta GA, the MARTA bus stops have 40-minute wait intervals outside of peak times. In Missoula Montana, the bus stop interval is 1 hour on Saturdays and

> In Atlanta GA, the MARTA bus stops have 40-minute wait intervals outside of peak times. In Missoula Montana, the bus stop interval is 1 hour on Saturdays and Sundays. Yeah, okay, wow, that's really bad. Only place in the US I've ever used the bus was San Francisco (and its immediate surroundings), which is, I suppose, a bit of a special case, as American cities go (it was worse than the buses I'm used to in terms of frequency, but not _dramatically_ worse). > The layout & logistics of American lifestyles favors the car. This is true to some extent, but I would wonder how much of it is chicken-and-egg; people avoid the public transport because, as you've mentioned, it is _unusably bad_ (I wouldn't consider 1/hour acceptable except for late-night or rural services). As I understand it, in NYC, for instance, which has acceptable public transport, people _do_ use it. > At any Costco parking lot, you can see soccer moms loading up the SUV with a ton of groceries and toilet paper. Trying to haul all that on a public bus would not be convenient. Grocery delivery is a thing (actually, my impression is that it's less common as a first-party thing in the US; I'm not entirely sure why). And of course even in less car-dependent countries people often do use cars for _that_ sort of thing. > And drivers also like listening to music in their private cars. I mean, this would have made sense as a justification at one time (I think way back in the day this was actually used as a selling point by car companies), but come on, now, the walkman came out in 1979 (even before that, the transistor radio with earphone was a thing). I'm 40 and have been listening to music on public transport all my life.