Hilariously untrue. Using the bus and bike to go to work is normal here. Buses and cycle paths are full of people during rush hour. In the US using those gets you weird looks. Depends on what part of Europe and what part of US we're talking about of course, but in general this holds true.

Do you have source for this? I believe this could be true now but I find this kind of arguing dismissive and missing the point.

I'm not from environment you have described. Still remmeber people in my East European corner were able to easily commute to work by bus/train without car. However since they got richer they adopted American commuter patterns more and this led to deterioration of public transport outside of urban areas.

No wonder people get "touchy" because you are not really arguing for those who are not "young healthy well-paid tech workers". But against them. It is not about just ditching the cars but changing whole design of living around the need of cars - which is the point that actually started this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43666410

Great, some discord found this a couple days later and wants a google-a-thon. Since I don't know anything about "Europe", I don't care who is "european" enough to qualify for the 50% or 70% or whatever. Just that they have much better public transit, but still largely drive to work.

So as soon as you start considering cost and return on investment services tend to be reduced or shut down.