> In the US we can afford not to take public transit and exercise that preference, in many places, it's not an option. Public transit is objectively a better s

> In the US we can afford not to take public transit and exercise that preference, in many places, it's not an option. Public transit is objectively a better solution than individual cars. It's not that other countries have public transit because they don't have a choice. They do: they just choose the better option. > To that extent I think it comes back to preference and maybe culture, and doesn't indicate any kind of failure. Sure, it was built like this in the US because of the culture. But retrospectively it was a mistake. Driving an individual car emits more CO2 than taking a bus or a train, period. The US is probably the only place in the world where a swasticar is considered "ecological": it's using a lot of energy, just because it's heavy.