Once public transit is at the frequency of Tokyo trains and familiarity of the back of your hand, it’s often a no brainer.
The problem is, until it hits that point it involves a LOT of planning and conforming to other peoples schedules.
Which for many people (parents, folks going to and from a lot of different places) can dramatically decrease their ability to actually exist or do what they normally do.
If it’s in an environment where cars suck to drive/park/etc. (dense urban environments), then it quickly goes to public transit.
But especially in the US, density is low, cars are easier than the alternative unless someone spends several trillions at least on some giant initiative (which they won’t). So for most of the (physical) US, public transit makes no sense.
There are areas on the border (SF Bay Area, a lot of outlying Seattle Metro, etc), and in those cases both options suck.
The problem is, until it hits that point it involves a LOT of planning and conforming to other peoples schedules.
Which for many people (parents, folks going to and from a lot of different places) can dramatically decrease their ability to actually exist or do what they normally do.
If it’s in an environment where cars suck to drive/park/etc. (dense urban environments), then it quickly goes to public transit.
But especially in the US, density is low, cars are easier than the alternative unless someone spends several trillions at least on some giant initiative (which they won’t). So for most of the (physical) US, public transit makes no sense.
There are areas on the border (SF Bay Area, a lot of outlying Seattle Metro, etc), and in those cases both options suck.