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Comment by idreyn | Hacker News Reader

I would argue that the automobile is a brilliantly designed tool for making flexible, medium-long distance trips quickly and cheaply. In America, this tool has been stretched far beyond the use cases where it shines. We've tried to make it "the only mode you'll ever need" for almost all Americans, deploying it where transit, cycling, and walking would be far more appropriate. It is great that many low-income people can technically afford to own a vehicle; it is not great that the layout of our cities _forces_ them to own and maintain one.

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Also neglecting long distance transit. Passenger trains are pretty much not a thing in America, right?

Passenger trains suck at long distance transit. Trains work well for trips up to around 500 miles where they are faster than planes after factoring arriving at the airport early, after that trains are more expensive and slower than airplanes, without allowing the flexibility of a car. Note that if you live in Europe you can cover several countries in this distance and thus feel well traveled without ever going far from home on a continental (much less global) scale.

A full car is cost competitive with planes and trains, and gives you flexibility to stop and see things along the way.

Not really, the distances are too great to make them economical. That's why air travel is more common.

For distances where trains make sense, cars are preferable: You can travel at your own schedule, and then you have transportation at your destination. If you take a train, you have to meet the train at a certain place at a certain time, which is stressful, and then you still have to arrange transportation from the train station to your final destination.

Even worse, if you have to change trains during your trip... It's much, much easier to put all your stuff in a car once.

This basically leaves trains for traveling between dense cities, where the passengers either live close to a train station, or have a destination close to a train station.

And, to be honest, after flying twice with young kids this year, I put my foot down and told my wife road trips only for the next few years. I wouldn't want to travel by train with young children for the same reason that travel by air with young children is difficult.

On the other hand, you have to actually drive the car and it has much less space so it's less comfortable.

Maybe if you fly first class. Coach is far less comfortable than a car seat.

Traveling by train with not tiny kids is pleasant.

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