this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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It works pretty well here in Berlin. The trains go far to the suburbs and beyond, are fast and comfortable. You pay 49 euros a month and can travel anywhere in the country with the ticket. Most of them go even at night.
Well, why don't you compare? Open up Google Maps. Choose two points in the suburbs, and see how long it takes to travel between them by car versus by public transit.
I did the same, between my apartment complex and a nearby business, and the estimates are 12 minutes by car and 47 minutes by bus. Main problem: there's a transfer in the middle of this route where I'd have to wait 11 minutes for the next bus to arrive.
I tried again with a different business, and got a direct bus route with no transfers and exactly the same route I'd take in a car. This is the best-case scenario for public transit, but going by car is still significantly faster: 10 minutes by car, or 17 minutes by bus.
Usually either one bus or one train. 10 minutes longer, sometimes 15. And so much cheaper and better for the environment.
Ha! I’d kill for 10 minutes. When I first moved to SoCal I didn’t have a car and had two take two buses daily to work with an hour between.
One time the second bus didn’t show (not the first time), I couldn’t find a ride so I walked the 10 miles and got to work sooner than if I’d taken the bus.
Well, that problem can be solved with more public transit, at least. More buses means less time waiting for a bus to show up.
But, even where I live, where there are plenty of buses to go around, they're still slower than cars.