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

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?"

"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.

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.

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.

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

"Cars are about freedom, they let you go where you want when you want!" Yeah but...so do good public transit systems. That's the whole point.

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.

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!"

"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.

when you randomly start having seizures without health insurance and get fired from your job , you realize how important public transportation actually is

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.

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 🤦‍♂️

Car: personal freedom. Freedom to be stuck in traffic jams for hours! :)))

Our cities weren’t built for the car…they were blown up and completely rebuilt for the car.

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

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

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 😬

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.

Anything with the word "public" is shunned in the US, baffling how the country still lives its very own red scare to this day.

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.

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

"With the car, you can go anywhere..." And yet, people use it, most of the time to get to work lol

I can't remember who told the story, but someone was actually stopped by a police officer in the US because he was _walking_ to the shops!

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.

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

I admire places where cars aren't anywhere near the main mode of transportation. Where learning how to drive and getting a car isn't an essential requirement for living.

The freedom to buy a car, buy gas, buy repairs & maintenance, buy winter tires, pay for traffic signals, pay for roads, pay for tolls, pay to have the roads cleaned/swept & patrolled by officers, pay for parking, pay for insurance and pay foreign despots for the oil they drilled in their land.

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

When the U.S. electrified its horsecart rails, I’ll bet the horses were shocked 😳

What shocks me as a non American is that 16 year olds have their own car and use it to go to school. It's so bizarre to me because I'm in college and still use my bike or public transportation to commute everywhere.

As a Canadian now living in Austin, I can say confidently that you can't live without a car in America

I'm genuinely worried about Wendover Productions. He hasn't talked about planes since his last video. I believe he's been kidnapped and forced against his will to upload this video.

In Singapore if a train arrives 3 minutes late there will be a public apology

Public Transportation in America is so bad that every job interviewer will ask you if you have a sustainable way to commute back and forth to work. Knowing that there's isn't a lot of available busses/trains and even have a cut off time so people working night shifts are screwed and have to either catch a ride with a friend/coworker or call an uber.

This vid got me into urban planning. On my 15th birthday in 2019 I forgot the key to my house and had to wait until my mom got home, so I hopped on KZfaq and saw this recommended. I got hooked instantly. Thanks for helping me realize one of my passions.

I like cars as a hobby/interest, but we really need to stop relying on them.

I am always astonished to see cities or states ranked for retirement based on lower taxes; they should really be ranked based on public transportations. Do you really expect people in their 70s and 80s to drive? My dad is over 90 and retired in Kansas, yet he is forced to drive.

I love riding public transit, and take it at every possible opportunity just to learn and see new systems. People often remind me that it’s far less convenient than driving. In a perfect world, it should be far more convenient than driving.

here in hongkong, if the train is 30 minutes late, they are fined 100k+ USD and here the metro keeps expanding and keeps getting better!

“Boston, New York, and D.C have decent public transportation systems Chicago: *am I a joke to you?*

Deutsche bahn: I am so upset. I have so many delays. Sometimes my trains don't come on time Amtrak : Hold my beer

It really is awful the way society is built around cars in the US considering how expensive they are to purchase and maintain. My family has always lived paycheck to paycheck and the neighborhood we live in had a lot of theft, when our car got stolen we literally didn't know what to do. My dad's disabled, my mom is breadwinner and losing the car meant losing the ability to commute to work. We barely have any bus-lines and it's a dangerous city to travel alone especially at night, women are stalked and assaulted all the time, the buses themselves are notorious. But of course the cheapest decent cars are still thousands of dollars and we literally can't afford that because we're already barely staying afloat. Using a lyft or uber everyday would dig into the paycheck more than we could afford and still pay bills. It's sad how a car could take down the entire families income because there's no safe alternative. In the end we just got lucky that a relative had a salvaged car that he was ready to lend us, if it wasn't for that I'm not sure how much debt we would have gotten into just trying to get a car. What's sad is that I actually live in a very wealthy city (we bought property before the value rose exponentially), and the crime is terrible, there's no public transportation and employment is impossible without a prestigious degree. You realize how society really is designed to keep the poor as poor and make the rich richer. I worked my ass off to get into a good college and I devote everything into trying to get a good job to support my family, but there's so many ways that I just got lucky, and so many ways I could have been unlucky and been stuck forever in the loop of poverty. I wish we spent less time talking about fluffy philosophical concepts like "personal freedom and individualism" and spent more time thinking about REAL issues that actual affect everyday people like public transportation, medical care costs and student debt. Things that would ACTUALLY improve the lives of people instead of symbolic rights like owning a car so you have the freedom to drive aimlessly somewhere as if poor people have the time or gas money to drive wherever they want. Anyway, done with my rant in the comments section where no one will read haha

When owning a car is becoming more and more expensive with the price of a car + insurance + gas + trying to find parking compared to a transit pass, it just makes more sense to use public transit (if you live in a city that heavily supports it), which has saved me thousands in comminuting. The college I went to is 25min away, my now full time job is 15min away.

Canada also has this problem, and it stings even more given the fact part of Canada's foundation relied upon a trans-Canada railway linking BC to Nova Scotia. Now that line is an old, outdated, badly maintained dinosaur that only ships goods and materials, and derails often. Canada's geography is begging for a new, high tech passenger rail system to alleviate roads congested with cars and semis that often have tragic collisions on long stretches of highway.

In 2012 I was visiting US for some training for couple of week. My hotel was 200meter away from training center and I would walk that distance every morning and evening while returning. In those 2 weeks, I was stopped midway (multiple times) when people saw me on foot. Some asked if I was carjacked and needed help? Some wondered if I was an illegal migrant (since they are poor and can't afford car)? Some offered me lift for those 200m. No one believed when I said I "wanted" to walk.

Reliable Public transit = more people walking More people walking = they take notice of stores they used to drive past by They take notice = more business for the shops More business = less money being spent outside of the town More money in the town = town prospers Town prospers = More business can appear to fill the demand. Now people don't need to leave to get what they need. They can just walk/bike or take the bus/streetcar to their destination. What if we continue car dependency? Using cars = less need for public transit Less need = more people ignoring stores Ignoring stores = less business Less business = business leave or shut down Businesses are gone = People spend money outside of the town People spending outside the town = town declines Adding less but large sized stores = People come back People come back = Prices go up Prices go up = People can't afford it People can't afford it = Goes back to people spending outside of the town Town declines = People can't keep up with their payments No payments = People leave Add the rich to vacant homes = Town stays alive for a little bit The rich leave after prices go up again = Town dies

Sydney, Australia had one of the most extensive tram systems in the world. All gone by 1961. Now, they're building it again.

I wake up at 4 am every day to catch a bus so I can make it to class by 8AM for a class 20 minutes away by car. Public transportation is so slow here that I spend anywhere from 6-8 hours every day just riding the bus to get to places 20 minutes away by car. It is absolutely pitiful.

_"Isn't it hilarious how cars are marketed as the ultimate symbol of freedom, and yet you can't function without owning and maintaining one? Your government-issued ID is a _*_Driver's License."_* In Europe, you can choose to drive. Some of the highest quality cars in the world are available for purchase there. And yet public transportation works. And people there CHOOSE to use it instead of driving.

Another factor I’ve found in my travels is that while Europeans/Asians see public transport as transport for everyone, Americans (putting aside NYC/Boston/DC you mentioned) see it more as welfare for the poor; part of the mindset you highlighted that car equals freedom equals success. Glad that this attitude is changing with my generation!

Owning a car has gotten so expensive

Cincinnati has a new street car line. The problem is that it is not reliable . It is closed for parades or other big events

the point about zoning is something never thought of; zoning can hurt poor people; so, great observation. Europe has lower wealth inequality and part of that is zoning.

A part of me fears that this is on purpose as a strong transportation system is one of the essentials to make social upwards mobiloty possibme in the first place

You know its bad when a rural place like Cornwall has public transport on par with American major cities.

You completely failed to mention the interstate system. I would credit that just as much as the automobile for the death of public transit and the birth of sprawl. After the war US generals who were impressed with the autobahn lobbied for a national defense highway system to quickly move troops across the county. This new system that connected every city suddenly made building houses and communities many miles from the city center economically feasible.

I've finally found someone (the maker of this video) who agrees with something I've thought for a long time: zoning laws in the US cause a city to be organized such that one always has to go a considerable distance to shop for groceries (and most other things, too), while in Europe the grocery store is more likely to be in the neighborhood a short walk away. Therefore, I've decided I'm NOT going to feel guilty about driving to go shopping--there really isn't much choice in most parts of the US.

American cities weren't made for the CARS. American cities were DESTROYED for CARS. - NotJustBikes

I don't even plan on using public transportation but I want it in the usa. There's plenty of people who need it. I think liberty is having access to the areas where money and business is.

One thing I'd like to add: many cities in Europe actually were about to copy what cities in the US did during the 70s, like getting rid of trams and neighbourhoods in favour of highways. But to my knowledge they faced heavy resistance from the population and plans were dropped thankfully. I myself live in a city were you can still see some artefacts from that time, like ramps that go nowhere (because the highway was never built), or bridges that don't connect to anything. really fascinating stuff.

In the UK, house prices go up whenever a railway gets a new or bigger station.

Not being able to drive myself, this made legit cry.

funny that i have driving anxiety which has led me to go without a license for 8 years after developing panic attacks. yet i was born in a country that has one of the best public transportation systems in the world (korea). its one reason i had to move to the city from the suburb. in high school, i felt so ashamed that i had to take the bus up until senior year. would be really great if i wasnt constantly burdened by this issue in my life. like yeah, i could "fix" my anxiety. more likely, ill probably move to asia instead where i have more choices. one thing i hate is going to the dmv where all the workers always look done with their lives and fed up with humanity. if i wasnt forced into my car with them, passing might be a lot easier.

"Public transportation gets worse the further west you go" *sad Portland noises*

Access to transportation is the single most important factor in an individual's ability to escape poverty.. - wow quote of truth!...

"Own a car to reclaim the freedom the car industry has taken away from you"

I live in the UK and there are like over 5 public buses which I can use to get to school every morning and the bus stop is just down my road. I also love the trains, you can go from London (where I live) or even any other train station in any other city to almost anywhere cross the country. Unfortunately seems like that isn’t the case in the US…

As a 19 year old in Germany I don't have much reason to use a car other than for buying groceries or taking friends somewhere on a more private setting The ammount of busses leaving in front of my house is ridiculous (up to 1 bus / 2 min)

When you were talking about zoning, all I could think was how useful the info was to making more accurate European cities in Cities Skylines.

My car payment is $600 per month, the fuel is $250 a month, the insurance is $150 per month, and the money set aside for maintenance is $50 a month. It costs $12,600 a year for me to own a car. My city is set up in a way that I can't get to work, buy groceries, or see a doctor without a car, so essentially this is a mandatory cost of living. Good public transport would give millions of other people like me essentially a $12K per year raise. Talk about economic stimulus, there you go...

In Brazil, we also emulated the "american way of life", the results are even worse than in the US, as a developing economy with high taxes, not only is public transportation terrible with an enormous dependence towards buses. To buy a car is equivalent to entire years of someone's work's pay, up until the 19th we sustained a decent and booming railroad system then it was neglected in favour of highways during the 1930s.

It's not bad *It's Non-Existent*

Maybe US should have an Airplane Public Transport System. Powered by Wendover Productions.

There's another element of the urban transit story that I wish you had covered. In many cities, transit was created to help sell real estate in newly developed neighborhoods. In San Francisco today you can still see how well this worked in the West Portal neighborhood where a commercial street was created just outside the long tunnel connecting downtown to a new neighborhood where three different street car lines fanned out to serve a large area. Transit and convenient services combined to help sell real estate on the far side of the city. The payoff was NOT the fares collected on the street cars but the property taxes collected on the newly developed land. Something very similar happened with suburban development around cities with the Interstate highway system.

As one who has lived in rural America, I would have liked to hear more discussion about people and transportation in areas that are not cities.

They called it "personal freedom" but I spent 2 hours of my personal time, operating heavy machinery, getting to and from to work, unpaid. I gave that up and spent 2.5 hours instead doing my own things while some other paid people moves me to and from work.

I've watched this video three times now and I think you leave out a critical aspect of why Public Transit sucks in America: NIMBY (Not in my back yard). I grew up in Atlanta where MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) has a fairly good system. However, every time they try to improve it, they immediately get met with lawsuits, protests, and resistance from communities. Same thing in Boston. When I was in Grad school they were trying to improve the subway there and kept running up against communities not wanting an expansion. It is also interesting that when they do surveys in places like LA, Atlanta, and Dallas about if Public Transit is a good idea they overwhelming say "yes". Then when they ask if they personally will use it, they overwhelmingly say no.

Where my mum lived in Springboro, Ohio, there were a public park, a public and a private elementary school, a public library, a combined drug/grocery store, two small restaurants, a wineseller, two churches, a bank, a dentist, an urgent care, a hairdresser, a tanning salon and some other offices I can't remember, all within the radius of 10-15 min. walk from her house, and without even having to cross a major road. As I recall, none of those buildings was higher than 2 storeys and most looked residential even though they weren't, if that makes sense. It wasn't a retirement community, but it was planned to some extent, I believe. I'd be interested in seeing the zoning code. Anyway, despite having all those amenities within walking distance, my mum always drove to them. She never understood why I loved walking to those places when I was there.

I never found public transpo to be a weird idea, my city has had it for as long as I can remember. I live on the east coast of Canada, which means that I live in an old city, and even if the suburban areas are more “American” the downtown area is definitely compact and the buses go basically anywhere. It saves me so much walking and or asking for rides. I couldn’t live without it

“Some cities like Portland, Kansas City, Detroit, and D.C. are turning back to street cars.” *shows video of street car in Salt Lake City, Utah*

As an American who just lived in Amsterdam for a year, I've seen the light! The Netherlands got their shit together when it comes to public transportation and biking infrastructure. You want a car? Sure, but it's expensive, and it'll suck. They deter driving, rather than promote it. My bike cost me about 200$, and there's really no maintenance, I can park wherever I want, it's great exercise, and no insurance. Some will say, "well yeah, but sometimes you don't want to exercise to get somewhere, or it sucks when it rains." Sure, but there's no perfect system. My car in the States was 15,000$, insurance 2k a year, and maintenance and oil changes were hundreds a year. No thanks.

It's sad that in America public transport is only seen as worthwhile if it can make money

As a huge car person, I love having a car. But I wish most of America wasn’t built around it

Insert horrible traffic jams in LA which makes you hate anything related to cars

I'm from the Philippines. We are the only big Southeast Asian economy that doesn't have an extensive train network, though we used to have one. All we have right now are three metro lines and two virtually unconnected sections (formerly connected) of conventional rail; one operating from the northern part of the capital metropolis to the suburbs in the south, and another section operating a few hundred kilometers away between two small cities (actually the infrastructure throughout the whole line is intact, but because the national rail company doesn't have enough trains, there's no regular service throughout the entire line, save for the two mentioned sections) This has much to do with American colonialism and later the colonial mentality. Now during the first couple decades of colonization, the American built extensive rail infrastructure for us, most of which, sadly has been neglected to this day. They even built a tram system in the capital, which was bombed by the Japanese and Americans during World War 2 and never repaired. After the war, we were finally given independence from America. However, there was still the colonial mentality. We were, and still are, among the most pro-American countries in the world, which by itself isn't a problem, but with that comes the desire to imitate America; skin whitening, low public spending, and prioritizing cars, and buses over trains, instead of giving equal priority like other Asian countries. But it's not just the colonial mentality; American companies basically shoved American road culture down our throats, lobbied, etc., this was later replicated by local bus companies. American road culture works in America since it's sparesly populated, but when you shove it down the throats of a densely-populated Asian country, it leads to problems such as the traffic congestion being experienced in our metropolitan areas and other busy corridors, including those in the suburbs. Then in the late 1970s, our railways started declining (fun fact: during this time we were ruled by a US-backed dictator, who started off good but later turned out to be an ass, although he did build our first metro line) thanks to bus lobbyists, but also thanks to Hollywood, albeit indirectly. Well, we now have a really good tollway network, but that doesn't mean enough when our regular roads and our railways are in relatively bad condition. We, along with Timor-Leste are like the black sheeps of Southeast Asia. Thankfully, in recent years, the government is working to revitalize our rail network. the national railway has been improved, with new lines under construction. Our first subway is under construction and our existing metro lines being improved and extended, all with the financial aid of Japan and China. We are realizing that taking notes from America was a mistake and that the only way forward is to take notes from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, etc. Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention that the government of my home city Makati hired a private firm to construct and operate a subway with tunneling expected to start this year or the next. The city government will technically own the infrastructure but maintenance, operation, and real estate will be handled by the private partner.

4:56 Not when you're stuck in hour long traffic jams!

I live in Vienna, the city with arguably one of the best PT systems in the world. A person below 30 is almost always considered financially irresponsible and "dumb" for owning a car here, as there is just no point. PT is usually faster, more relaxing, you can take it high/drunk, you can play on your phone, look at people; and we have what feels like a million ride sharing companies which cars' you can park everywhere (unlike your own car which you can only park for semi-free (still costs yearly) within your home district of which there are 23). I have one and if my relatives wouldn't live outside the city where I can only reliably get to with a car I would sell it in a heartbeat, just a waste of money.

He is so right. Public transportation helps so much in getting out of poverty. From personal experience I cannot afford a car and I do not have good public transportation system in my town. It is so hard to get to a job or to get an internship. I have to walk miles and miles on end to get my job.

Well in Indiana, we have corn, soybeans, and corn

Public transportation is much safer than driving but ironically in LA you have to cross streets with people driving to get to public transportation... basically dealing with distracted and reckless drivers is unavoidable unless you're a millionaire who can just take uber uber everywhere.

The US has honestly become that of a dead dream, once the land of dreams and making the impossible possible....now is the land where dreams go to die, and people lose will to live because of how impossible it is to make your dreams come true, instead everyone is forced to conform, and forced to be a mindless drone. For as much as we like to say we have the greatest freedoms, those freedoms have been eroded to become a weapon against us now. Transport being one of them...which is why our cities are dying ever so much nowadays. The funny thing is though, that only those with the funds or will to sacrifice their sanity can make what they really want to have come true....come true.

As someone who grew up in Eastern Europe, I was always appalled at just how terrible the US mass transit was. It's almost like it's bad on purpose. Same goes for street and road layout - nothing here is built for ease of mobility.

In Japan they even sometimes issue explanation letters to every rider so they can show you school or employers if the train is more than ten minutes late

When I lived next to a metro station I could go almost anywhere in Sofia, Bulgaria and also had time to read(for the longer trips). When I moved to an area with 0 public transport I HAD to have a car. With car I can go anywhere in the city. But also, the cost of supporting a car is higher. Not to mention taxing on your health when dealing with idiots on the roads. Freedom has a price. And sometimes, I just don't want to pay that price. I long for a time, when public transport will reach my new neighborhood and I will be able to use it yet again.

Well Asia has some of the world's best transit systems anyway including Japan. And Europe has the best transit systems as well including England, France, and Germany. And some others as well.

More bicycle paths are a good idea also as I used to ride a bike and sometimes walk regularly to work.

Chicago is another anomaly compared to the rest of the midwest, with it being the train capital of the US.

Sorry what do you mean "LA grew up around the car" and the city is built for the car - it was *rebuilt* for the car. LA was already vast and had a public transit system before it was destroyed and remade in the image of the car! That wasn't a thing that "just happened" it was specific policy choices that made it that way

Over attachment to cars and oil