Why not turn your commute into a 5 min drive to the station, then a book?
And my house is too expensive because I'm only 5 minute from the subway. The vast majority of people have to live further.
If I was going to downtown Philly, might be worth it. But if I wasn't, then driving would absolutely be a lot fast. Since I'd have to navigate the last miles there adding more time.
The ability to just leave whenever I want without having to connect a bunch of train rides is pretty valuable even if it took longer.
EDIT: and to make it clear, I'm not a suburanite who is allergic to public transport. Until a year ago, I lived in the city and didn't have a personal car. And even now, I'd take Acela to NYC rather than fly or drive. It just doesn't make sense for other stops on the way like Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore. And Boston would take too long on Acela, and I'd fly instead.
But... doing so requires driving an hour in basically the wrong direction to the suburban Amtrak station. And then it takes longer than driving directly would. The only reason I do it is that I hate driving into Manhattan and parking there. Whereas when I arrive by train I can just walk to my hotel.
And, yeah, for Boston to DC I'll typically fly. The train is viable and I've done it but it's a full day trip vs. a short flight. And one of the airports is right on the metro vs. the NYC airports which are not.
As of November 2022, the DC silver metro line now includes Dulles International (IAD). So both of the major airports are now directly connected.
https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/silver-line-extension/Wash...
Having a system that takes people only from where they live to where they work is much more inconvenient when individual cars allow people to go from work to the kids’ sports game to Costco to a relatives house and then home.
But that model of public transit is not tenable outside of places with density like Manhattan. Even in New York City, all the public transit is mostly focused on getting people into and out of Manhattan, so people in outer boroughs like to have cars.
This is what a public transit map that would compete with the convenience of individual cars would look like:
https://www.tokyometro.jp/en/subwaymap/
Contrast with the best that the USA can do:
Not that Tokyo is perfect, but it still has a far greater radius that link with each other without going to the central district.
Such a disconnect.
If it was a 5 minute drive, in city, you could just walk there in 10.
Parent effectively said "not close". So you suggest a 1 hour drive, a 2 hour train, instead of a 90 minute drive?
(You also have to wait for the train to leave, wait for its stops along the way, and be there precisely on time (hence the wait at the start)).
I find so many of the comments boil down to "I live deep in a city, never drive, and am in an entirely different geopolitical environment, but I know what makes sense for you!
If my circumstances were different, and that time was mostly recoverable as leisure then it's absolutely great advice, but it doesn't scale to every person.
You'd be much better off spending that money on local commuter rail, which is more or less a prerequisite for HSP to work anyway.
I live in a city with decent buses, 3 street train lines and a commuter rail, and use the street lines frequently. Unless your departure and destination are right on the train line, you're still looking at a 1 hour - 2 hour commute with possible missed connections every step of the way. To canvas the city thoroughly you would need buses or trains running every 10 minutes, on every 3rd or 5th block. They would also need to be preferable to the alternative (a personal vehicle with no disruptive passengers, controlled climate, that is available when and where you need it).
Do I love taking the train into the city center for a night on the town, or out to the airport to avoid parking? Absolutely. Will I sacrifice 3 hours out of my day just so that I can say I'm saving the planet? Probably not.
The only way it would work would be some giant weave pattern of train lines where 1 car continues on, one departs left, and one departs right every stop. The budget and logistics of that would make it prohibitively expensive and prone to failure. There are also loads of reasons why people can't take transit (kids, cargo, late night / early morning schedules) and if they're not 80% solved, it will never catch on in the states.