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you can live well without Imagine you and your spouse both work full time, and you have 1-2 children. And your definition of 'living well' includes having thos

you can live well without Imagine you and your spouse both work full time, and you have 1-2 children. And your definition of 'living well' includes having those children learn to swim well, and do some sort of after-school sport, and also do math supplementation because SFUSD teaches math at a really slow pace. I don't believe any of the above are outlier or unreasonable positions to have. Yet a family in that situation would severely struggle to fit everything in if they had to rely solely on public transport to get between home, school and after-school activities. (I grew up in London, where public transport is often faster than driving. In San Francisco, most of my car journeys would take 3-4 times as long by public transport.)

renewiltord 1y ago
Admittedly, public transport is garbage. And for the time we'd go to La Petite Baleen, a car is 0.5x the time. So in that respect I agree. In Mission Bay everything else is close by. But I think perhaps if someone told me "We don't live well. I can only take my child to swim class on the weekends" I would think that somewhat strange.
- rahimnathwani 1y ago
  Re: La Petite Baleen: 34 mins vs 1 hour 11 mins for me. My son's swim school is 20 mins away by car, or 60 mins by public transport. I take your point that these are first world problems. But my point is that not having access to a car in San Francisco is a significant inconvenience and it's incorrect to say 'you can live well' without that access. You might not be so inconvenienced that you would say "we don't live well", but there's a 'meh' zone in between the two.
  - renewiltord 1y ago
    I wouldn't say it's "meh" that you can take your kids to swim school only on weekends. LPB is 23 vs 39 for me but I do drive. Either way I wouldn't think it "meh". But I suppose standards of living in the US are by default so far ahead of other places that these are considered the minimum to not be "meh" here.
    - rahimnathwani 1y ago
      LPB is 23 vs 39 for me but I do drive. Either way I wouldn't think it "meh". The 39 minute journey time doesn't include: - the time between now and the journey start time - delays So you would need to budget an hour each way, i.e. a total of 2.5 hours for a 30 minute swim lesson. Imagine doing that for every single thing you need to do.
      - renewiltord 1y ago
        Normally I'd agree with you, but I can pick my swim lesson time and I don't have to worry about headway timing because I know when to leave and the train is timed. For untimed services, certainly I'd believe it. These are complaints of generality that don't have relevance in the specific case.

renewiltord 1y ago

Admittedly, public transport is garbage. And for the time we'd go to La Petite Baleen, a car is 0.5x the time. So in that respect I agree. In Mission Bay everything else is close by. But I think perhaps if someone told me "We don't live well. I can only take my child to swim class on the weekends" I would think that somewhat strange.

rahimnathwani 1y ago
Re: La Petite Baleen: 34 mins vs 1 hour 11 mins for me. My son's swim school is 20 mins away by car, or 60 mins by public transport. I take your point that these are first world problems. But my point is that not having access to a car in San Francisco is a significant inconvenience and it's incorrect to say 'you can live well' without that access. You might not be so inconvenienced that you would say "we don't live well", but there's a 'meh' zone in between the two.
- renewiltord 1y ago
  I wouldn't say it's "meh" that you can take your kids to swim school only on weekends. LPB is 23 vs 39 for me but I do drive. Either way I wouldn't think it "meh". But I suppose standards of living in the US are by default so far ahead of other places that these are considered the minimum to not be "meh" here.
  - rahimnathwani 1y ago
    LPB is 23 vs 39 for me but I do drive. Either way I wouldn't think it "meh". The 39 minute journey time doesn't include: - the time between now and the journey start time - delays So you would need to budget an hour each way, i.e. a total of 2.5 hours for a 30 minute swim lesson. Imagine doing that for every single thing you need to do.
    - renewiltord 1y ago
      Normally I'd agree with you, but I can pick my swim lesson time and I don't have to worry about headway timing because I know when to leave and the train is timed. For untimed services, certainly I'd believe it. These are complaints of generality that don't have relevance in the specific case.