But in big cities, I don't know why people even need a car when public transportation does exist and is good.
And for us in Toronto we don't have a good transit system thanks to the previous mayor. Instead of spending the time and money expanding the system to serve the suburbs he concentrated on the 'downtown' core. He wanted surface routes instead of putting the service underground to actually serve more people. When we drive to the store it can take us anywhere from 30 minutes to a hour to drive 25kms. The time varies depending on the time of day and whether you've got 2 people in the car or are driving solo. If we relied on public transit then it would most likely take us 2 hours. Also for those that work flex hours public transit may not work because of the service that only runs in rush hour.
There are at least 4 different transit systems in the Toronto area and they're not all the same fare. You could end up spending about $10.00 a day on fare if you don't have any passes. Those passes don't work in every system either. Some people look at the cost of driving to work is actually cheaper than the paying the transit fares and for some it's faster to drive to work.
Also for many people they live further out from their work than we do. Some people have no choice but to drive to work as they don't have access to the public transit.
Yesterday's gas was $1.20/litre.
Now that's strange way to see it. At least Helsinki (population bit over 500,000) there's tram, subway and buses. I love trams there. I don't know if locals do, I think those are the best to be on time. I was working there for 2 weeks for World Championships in helsinki and even without that I know tram routes pretty well. So I few years ago I was there with my bf and two tourists ask "excuse me, do you know how to get Linnanmäki amusement park?" and I just say "oh yes, tram is easiest, go to the other side of this street, there's a stop for tram 3T and that takes you there. You see the park and right stop from the flags and it says Linnanmäki"
:lol::lol: My bf just asked "how the hell you know that so well? I was already saying that sorry don't know and you just start explaing how" :lol::lol:
Oh so many times I've gone there myself, so many times I've travelled with 3T and 3B and those two weeks gave me pretty good idea about the routes [I visit Helsinki probably once in a year]
And I think those work just fine. Except erm this winter because Helsinki (surprisingly) has gotten most of the snow, I think last time there was so much snow was in the 20s - anyways, our railways are suffering and local trains or those that travel in Helsinki area and people use to go to work - it's been a nightmare. And a Finn usually gets upset if train is more than 2 minutes late
[yes, buy more italian trains that won' t work with our snow, ice and cold weather]
Helsinki city the ticket is usually 2€ if bought beforehand by your cell phone or so. I use cell phone, because the drivers are usually silent grumpy drives, who get mad when stupid visitors don't know where this line 503b is going at this hour.
And my sister lives 60km from Helsinki and she said buses to Helsinki go ever 30mins or so.
I'd think that every big city for now would think that it's easier to have a good public transportation than have city centre full of cars.
Of course I live in rural area so we do have public transportation twice a day to east and twice a day to west and since those buses take kids to school, they don't drive outside schooldays.
