I've spent vast amounts of time commuting on public transport and by car.
You can't pay me to ever get on a bus again.
And not just in the US/Canada either. Even in the dense cities of Europe, public transportation << car transport. No bus can ever beat the comfort and convenience of putting a large amount of shopping / luggage in the back, getting in your private bubble, and going directly to your destination.
Then there's the people you meet on public transport. 99 / 100 of them are just people who want to go from A to B. But then there are the trouble-makers and weirdos. Do you really want to be stuck on a bus or train, straining under shopping bags or holiday luggage, with some unpredictable idiot eyeing you?
Some people, like newyorker.com, have a platonic ideal of public transport where we are all happily whisked from A to B on hyper-efficient and advanced vehicles, perhaps humming kumbaya to ourselves. But the reality is that it will always be inconvenient and slow - at best - and dangerous and super unpleasant in reality.
The one instance where public transport works well is when you want to travel 5-10 blocks, there's a lot of traffic, and you are carrying nothing, and there just so happens to be a subway going the right way.
The real way forward is to have electric cars, nuclear power plants, remote work, and maybe this new Musk tunnel thing.
...and then talks about buses. Buses? Ever heard of trains?
Commuting by car sucks. You have to actively participate in traffic, as opposed to just sitting on the train and reading a book, for example. In most EU large cities trains are faster and more convenient than cars. You also forget the fact that even in the 2x8 lanes of LA motorway systems you still get traffic jams, you cannot imagine what would happen if in an EU city all people would follow your advice.
And if you live closer to your work, you can hop on a bike (an ebike, even!), and enjoy some fresh air. Luckily on this side of the world people are not forced to live in those prison-like residential areas where the only way to get to anywhere is by car.
> maybe this new Musk tunnel thing.
It is inconcievable to me how people can take anything that man says seriously, even as a passing thought. But if you do, just look at the Vegas tunnel, how well that turned out!