>But most of what I like about it is great when “visiting,” not living. When I’ve lived in cities that had great public transportation it was occasionally nice; I could go downtown and get drunk without worrying about/coordinating transportation.
But commute times on public transport are absolutely dreadful.
My opinion couldn't differ more. I lived for 6 years in London. I didn't own a car the entire time. I had a zipcar membership, but I used it maybe once every 2 months. I kept it mostly not to loose my "car insurance no claim discount" of many years more than to use the service.
When I did commute by tube(underground) and train the entire trip lasted ~20min(including 5 min walk) and I didn't mind it at all. This was using one of the worst lines (the northern line). It's the deepest, the hottest and the dustiest (or at least it was back then) of the tube lines. But I got used to it pretty quickly and I actually enjoyed my very short commute (as compared with one I had before, when I lived in Staines, that was almost an hour one way).
Note that within a city like London there are better and worse modes of public transport. My favourite was definitely commuting by river (10min on a fast boat, no people packed like sardines, no hot temperature etc).
But then again I also spent few months biking to work(sadly before my bike was stolen).
Before that I lived in another large city with much worse public transport than London. I used my own car there every day. And as someone with experience of living long term in both places I can tell you I much preferred London.
That was all before the advent of remote work. Now, I much prefer not commuting at all and living elsewhere.
On the other hand when I visited for the first time I didn't enjoy London's public transport one bit. It seemed confusing(initially) cramped, uncomfortable etc. Only later I started liking it much more.
But commute times on public transport are absolutely dreadful.
My opinion couldn't differ more. I lived for 6 years in London. I didn't own a car the entire time. I had a zipcar membership, but I used it maybe once every 2 months. I kept it mostly not to loose my "car insurance no claim discount" of many years more than to use the service.
When I did commute by tube(underground) and train the entire trip lasted ~20min(including 5 min walk) and I didn't mind it at all. This was using one of the worst lines (the northern line). It's the deepest, the hottest and the dustiest (or at least it was back then) of the tube lines. But I got used to it pretty quickly and I actually enjoyed my very short commute (as compared with one I had before, when I lived in Staines, that was almost an hour one way).
Note that within a city like London there are better and worse modes of public transport. My favourite was definitely commuting by river (10min on a fast boat, no people packed like sardines, no hot temperature etc).
But then again I also spent few months biking to work(sadly before my bike was stolen).
Before that I lived in another large city with much worse public transport than London. I used my own car there every day. And as someone with experience of living long term in both places I can tell you I much preferred London.
That was all before the advent of remote work. Now, I much prefer not commuting at all and living elsewhere.
On the other hand when I visited for the first time I didn't enjoy London's public transport one bit. It seemed confusing(initially) cramped, uncomfortable etc. Only later I started liking it much more.