> Public transportation in the US is at best, tolerable.
I think this is very dependent on where you live, in both DC and the Bay I think public transportation is good, but expensive. To me, the problem more appears to be an American cultural aversion to intermingling the working class and the "professional" class of people.
> 2.) Bicycles are awesome, but you have to contend with precipitation, sweat, and theft.
Every mode of transportation has some downsides. You could say 'Cars are awesome, but you have to contend with about ~40k people dying in crashes every year.'
> 3.) Living close to city centers is abominably expensive
Hm, maybe if we could densify cities by removing some of these large paved spaces that people are supposed to stay away from.
Regarding your first point, it's to a degree, subjective. But I would classify Bay Area transit to be pretty bad. Have not been to DC, but I live in NYC, where Newyorkers are often fanatically proud of the subway system. But I think the NYC subways are disgusting and horrible compared to say, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, etc. which while still imperfect, are the shining examples of what good, proper, public transit systems should be like. Various European cities also have far better subways.
Then again, many Newyorkers think the subways in those cities are horrible and unusable just because they don't operate between ~1-5AM.
I think this is very dependent on where you live, in both DC and the Bay I think public transportation is good, but expensive. To me, the problem more appears to be an American cultural aversion to intermingling the working class and the "professional" class of people.
> 2.) Bicycles are awesome, but you have to contend with precipitation, sweat, and theft.
Every mode of transportation has some downsides. You could say 'Cars are awesome, but you have to contend with about ~40k people dying in crashes every year.'
> 3.) Living close to city centers is abominably expensive
Hm, maybe if we could densify cities by removing some of these large paved spaces that people are supposed to stay away from.