I think the approach of blaming the individuals is wrong. It's society's fault that it is preferable to take your car. In places where there is successful public transit( NYC, Paris) you see high-density residential building within a walkable distance to a mass transit station. All the ground floors in the buildings around the station are retail business or offices. This makes it easy and convenient for people to use public transit and shop for food. Contrast this with your average american city where there is nothing interesting around mass transit within walking distance and very few residential options.

To fix public transit in America we need to build high density residential building around existing stations with shops on the ground floor. Then it will be rational to use public transit.