Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US

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Streetcar POV footage courtesy David Lemon
Portland streetcar footage courtesy Schrodinger's Press
Modern streetcar POV footage courtesy Ramsay County

Music: "Slow Lights" by Lee Rosevere, "Namaste" by Audionautix, and "Enigmatic" by Bensound

Big thanks to Patreon supporters: Kevin Song,
Kevin Song, David Cichowski, Andy Tran, Victor Zimmer, Paul Jihoon Choi, Dylan Benson, M van Kasbergen, Etienne Dechamps, Adil Abdulla, Arunabh Chattopadhyay, Ieng Chi Hin, Ken Rutabana, John Johnston, Connor J Smith, Rob Harvey, Arkadiy Kulev, Hagai Bloch Gadot, Aitan Magence, Eyal Matsliah, Sihien Goh, Joseph Bull, Marcelo Alves Vieira, Hank Green, Plinio Correa, Brady Bellini

[BangMaster]

I live in Los Angeles, and the first question i got asked in a job interview was "Do you have a car to commute to work?"

[markb]

When I stayed over at my american relatives‘ place in California, they were dumbfounded that I (a european) wanted to try out what little of public transpo L.A. offered. They were dumbfounded of course but still let me. After my day tour, they mentioned how riding public transpo in the their state is generally stigmatized and serves to signal others that you‘re either crazy or poor. Sigh.

[theholyasdf]

"Access to transportation is the single most important factor in the individual's ability to escape poverty"

I live 10 minutes walk from a train station in Sydney, Aus. I have used it since 2007 to get to high school, to get to the two universities i studied at, to travel to the two jobs i've had. I have possibly taken up to ten thousand trips on the train in my entire life and thanks to it, I went from having nothing to eat at lunch every day at school, to a comfortable full time job.

[boomerix]

"Owning a car = freedom", it only is freedom as long as you can choose to own a car, when it becomes a requirement for the most basic things in life it turns into a burden.
Being able to reach your office fast via public transport and shop for groceries in walking distance, while using your car to go on a trip on a weekend = freedom.
Having to use your car every single day to get to ANYWHERE is not.

[bjkactivities]

I live in the Netherlands, most of my friends are in their late 20's and almost no one owns a car. And no one is ever thinking about buying one. It's just not a thing you need.

[lealevi]

I live in Switzerland and when I visited the US I was shocked how hard it was to go anywhere with out a car. I do everything with my bike or with public transport.
I regularly commute from one city to an other. (About 70 miles) it takes me about 1.15h from door to door. I grew up using public transportation. I was using it by self and alone when I was 7 or 8. And no my parents aren’t irresponsible. Public transport in Switzerland is safe.

[thematrix]

You realize how bad the situation is when your car breaks down

[IBeforeAExceptAfterK]

Funnily enough I think the whole "personal freedom" thing is starting to work against cars now. With the rise of smart phones, people now pretty much always have something they'd rather be doing than driving. Certainly I know I'd rather be doing stuff on my phone during my commute than having to pay attention to the road. That's probably why we're finally starting to see people push for better public transportation in the US.

[EMETRL]

and then you have the Japanese rail system, that posts federal apologies for a single train that showed up 6 seconds late

[Strategic_Reformer]

When Boston's, NYC's and DC's public transit are considered "Good" by American standards, that's says alot about how low those standards are 😬

[Everett]

As a British person I was wondering wtf a streetcar was throughout the whole video so I searched it up at the end and found out that it was just a tram 🤦‍♂️

[entertainus]

one of the biggest mistakes i made when i travelled to the US was not realising how car-reliant their society is. i wasn't old enough to rent a car, so i could barely visit anywhere cos I had to rely on either walking or the only bus route in the entire town that ran every hour or so, only from 9-4pm. i was completely shocked.

[boonekeller]

I would take the bus or train, if there WERE SOME

[greatandmightykevin]

In Japan if the train runs late, they officially apologize and try to fix it in the future

In America, if the bus runs late, they say "Welp, S.O.L! Shouldn't've been poor!"

[Kaushik.vishwakarma]

"Access to transportation is the single most important factor in the individual's ability to escape poverty" -- Great statement i learnt

[BloggerMusicMan]

Even though I love my car, this video basically gets it right. Especially with more and more people living in cities, designing a society around cars makes no sense.

[meandmetoo]

I'm 20 and can't yet buy myself a car.

I'm really blessed to live in Europe where I never really needed one.

[marcusbuist]

When anyone not from Scotland talks about Scotland (and is being nice) it warms my soul <3

[MinuteEarth]

You might have even called this video "A Desire Named Streetcars"

[Jak-dbio]

I‘m from Germany and I‘m very glad that I can travel almost every where by bus and train!