South Philly resident here. Philadelphia has "pretty good" public transport compared to many other large cities. It is particularly easy to get around by bicycle and by foot. It is no problem to get to any part of the city proper by subway, bus, taxi, uber, bicycle or foot. There are connections to NJ via bus and PATCO. Much of the outer suburbs are connected via SEPTA. You can get to NYC via NJtransit (cheaply!) or Amtrak (more expensive). It is not perfect, but I have trouble understanding why you're complaining, where do you want the public transit to go that it doesn't already ??? BTW, the lax attitude about parking is true: I own a car and park it on the sidewalk in the alley behind my house.