I will drive myself directly to work and save myself 2 hours. I don't care if it's worse for the rest, you couldn't pay me to sit on a bus for 2-3 hours just so I can sit in an office for 8 and then make the whole trip home at the end of the day.
Sorry not sorry.
So, ironically, what you are complaining about (and would probably vote against if given the choice) is something that could benefit you.
But hey, at least you have your freedom or something.
But it’s important to note that only takes 2-3 hours because public transit doesn’t get the investment it needs to be good. And even when cars do get an extreme amount of investment, it still takes you an hour to go 25 miles.
It should be clear at this point that driving is not a scalable, general solution for quick, effective transit in areas with lots of people. The pretty simple reason is that traffic congestion is an exponential problem (https://youtu.be/cHSCmQnGH9Q).
As a result, investing in car infrastructure is actually not a good way to improve your commute time. It may seem backwards, but since more car infrastructure encourages more drivers, and since more drivers increase congestion at an exponential rate, more car infrastructure tends to (at the best case) not improve the situation at all.
This is why people like myself really try to push for investment in other forms of transit. If you have multiple, high-quality transit options, some people will pick the train, some will pick a bike, and others will pick a car.
If biking and taking the train or bus is good enough that it gets a few drivers off the road, that makes the experience significantly better for you, as we are now decreasing congestion at an exponential rate. Even a handful of people using something else on a busy road can make a big difference in how long you wait at a traffic light.
I’m advocating for you to have more freedom: more good choices and options available to you. Right now you have one choice, driving, and it isn’t even that good because you have to wait in traffic. Why wouldn’t it be better to have 2 or 3 excellent transit options? Even driving would be better. (https://youtu.be/d8RRE2rDw4k)
This isn’t so much about individual choice. (Though every driver is the congestion simply by using a car.) This isn’t so much about rural and remote areas either. This is about what we invest in to improve the quality of life and transit effectiveness in dense areas.
And your example of a poor efficiency bus system (for your specific commute) is common but is usually a symptom of poor investment rather than an inherent problem with transit systems.
Another creative solution to reduce traffic is to work from home or a smaller satellite office that’s closer than that. Neighborhood coworking offices near local cafes, gyms etc make for nice walkability, bikability and drivability.