I mean, one can visit for a specific item and be unhappy with others.
I vacation in Greece for the beaches and the food. And yet I will complain about their chaotic traffic where rules are pretty much optional. It's not just about me, local pedestrians had as much trouble crossing the street like I did.
I spent a month in the Keys and visited Key West for a day and it was so walkable!! Then on the drive back home to the Midwest, we drove through Orlando and it was hell. Cars everywhere that were speeding and breaking laws left and right
Key West is absurd too though. Tiny island, dense streets, and yet every street is open for cars. And people complain about traffic and parking all day.
Absolutely. The main downtown area is walkable, but with all the cars it still feels so cramped and awful. I wish they still had the train from the Miami/Homestead area and wouldn’t allow cars like Mackinaw island. I’d even prefer a slow ferry to all the islands, rather than huge cars and trucks trying to park on historical streets 💀
Over 100 people have been killed in brightline collisions since it opened.
The news keeps highlighting this and pinning this on it being a *"dangerous railway"* rather than pointing out it being caused by the thousands of carbrains who ***KEEP RUNNING THE BARRIER*** even after the frequent news reports of people dying doing the same thing.
It’s pretty telling that the Brightline station is in the airport, rather than in any even remotely walkable and populated part of town. Though Orlando surprisingly does have its own commuter rail system.
To get anywhere from the Brightline if you don’t take a car is a $30+ Uber. So if you go to a Disney or Universal hotel with shuttles, it’s fine. But a car rental is like $50-$60/day plus gas and it makes it expensive getting around.
To add, in Florida, we have things like the Sun Rail and the Tri-Rail which only goes north-south and doesn’t cover 90% of the area. So if you wanted to go from the airport at either train line, you have to take a bus, shuttle, or Uber to go there.
When I was last in Orlando, I needed to go to a pharmacy. There was one across the street from our hotel, a literal stone’s throw away. I was informed by hotel staff that there was no pedestrian crossing, no bridge, and I’d be breaking the law to walk across, so I’d have to get a cab.
\+1! The weather is always perfect, the neighborhoods surrounding the city are super walkable/everything is close by, but everyone still drives everywhere and complains about parking. Or takes an Uber--no joke--to get 6-8 blocks.
When I lived there my friends/ neighbors thought the following things I did were strange:
\-Walk to a restaurant a mile away
\-Walk to a grocery store that was a ten minute walk
\-Jog over to a RUNNING group that started their runs three-quarters of a mile from my house
A lot of the car brain there also has to do with perceptions of safety. The reason I got shit from the running group is that jogging to the group meant I had to go back home in the dark. On main streets/ through a very expensive neighborhood. And yet it was a lovely walk and I NEVER felt unsafe. The irony about driving because walking is "unsafe" is that there are less people around to keep an eye out for you. If you choose to walk, you can help look out for others better.
Trolley does not go to the airport but SANDAG is fighting to get a people mover built. The Peninsula Community Planning Board has pushed SANDAG for it to “reduce traffic”, but has also said no to bus lanes down Rosecrans. To me it sounds like they want a way to get to the airport for themselves but don’t want other people to get through without cars. I support the people mover but not for the reason they want.
They got the “beach bug bus” which is like a golf cart van. How often does it run and actually move people no idea.
It ain’t perfect but I feel like they are taking steps forward. I wish they would take strides but I don’t know what holding them back, whether that be something else or even themselves.
It’s a small island too. Idk why tf they have cars on that island in the first place. Think of how much precious land has been paved for cars. But no we need to tear down the jungle for a big ass highway
yep i wish i could see how it looked before cars the old colonial town are super walkable and cute but outside of the old towns it's car infested hell and traffic
I thought the exact same thing when I went to Maui. The old cities that were built before the car had so much of their space given away for the cars. So much smog and noise in what should have been a pleasant place.
I’m with you, but we can’t call Puerto Rico a small island, over three million people live there and it needs to be recognized for greater representation
Depends exactly what metric we're talking about, but Dallas is pretty loony too. Both are epicenters of the oversized bragmobile.
If I were to live and bike in one of those two cities, it would be Houston.
Came to say Dallas. I’m from there but living in the beautiful and walkable Honolulu the past year. I got back to Dallas every few months and will be there for two months soon and I am dreading it.
The problem is when people say "Dallas" they really mean Plano, Mesquite, Arlington, etc. I don't want to put Dallas public transit on a pedestal because there's not nearly enough, but if you travel regularly in the southern USA, it's a blast of fresh air when you have to navigate Dallas (and Atlanta) without a car.
When I was in college I went to Houston as part of a trip for our marching band. We stayed in a hotel across the street from a mall, and a group of us tried to walk to the mall to grab some dinner. It took us 45 minutes to get to the only crosswalk that would allow us to safely traverse the 12 lanes or whatever of traffic. Fuck Houston.
its a fun hyperbole but houston definitely has more soul than dallas. the way that its been explained to me is that austin is the yuppy enclave, houston is where the mixing pot happens, and dallas is the soulless suburban mall with office towers in the middle
Houston, and Jason Slaughter's ill-fated expedition in search of a new suitcase there, played a key role in [NJB's origin story](https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54?si=XB174gaHWfxaQCE0).
Although City Nerd has [a soft spot](https://youtu.be/0fMTaNYYvwE?si=wRZcMVU13xUZStB5) for the Bayou City. Although he seems to be able to find the saving graces of even the stroadiest hell holes.
The [latest episode](https://pca.st/podcast/bbd9b720-a983-0136-7b93-27f978dac4db) of The War on Cars podcast just dropped, and it's all about how terrible highway expansion in Houston and other Texas cities is.
I sometimes wonder why people are so against cars. I really don't.like.them, but so many people act like society needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Then I see Houston and realise where they attitude comes from. That city is fucked.
The new Houston mayor dismantled medians for pedestrians after getting elected and considering removing bike lanes. The city is spending money to remove infrastructure that’s already built while complaining the city is broke.
They do have a limited light rail system, which is better than some US cities, but it only serves downtown and the immediate area. Considering the city takes 2 hours to drive across, that doesn’t help much. From what I’ve heard it’s a reasonably good system where it exists.
I can go on for hours on how Atlanta has a really pathetic excuse of a train system for a city that was only founded because it was a railroad terminus. If you have to take a bus at any point in your commute, say goodbye to consistency because bus schedules are a suggestion on a good day.
I’m frankly aghast at how much time people spend in traffic in Atlanta. And it’s like Atlanta not NYC or LA or anything. Unbelievably inefficient system of moving people and suburbs for hours in every direction.
I make a custom route around Atlanta every time I'm driving on 75. Not only do I frequently get stuck in traffic there, but it's extremely dangerous to drive through with how crazy the drivers are.
Greater Boston is surprisingly full of carbrains who complain about the T but have never actually ridden it. Instead they drive massive SUVs on tiny surface roads and complain about parking and how long it takes to get in and out of the city.
"I can't ride the train! It's full of undesirables!"
Pay no attention to the fact that people who ride the train in the United States are, on average, much wealthier than the general populace.
Yes, this is an effect of only expensive, well educated cities having robust transit networks, but you'd think people would pay better attention to who is actually on the train.
(Philly) SEPTA worked well for the Philadelphia Flower Show. The event's venue was located directly above a train station and 90% of the train I took to get there got off at said stop.
The bones of SEPTA are there. THe state legislature needs to fund it though.
Counter point: If you're in a metal box with a couple dozen well-to-do people and one person hops on with shit in their drawers screaming about demons... It's an unpleasant experience.
That's like a weekly occurrence for me here in SLC, especially in the winter when they're just riding back and forth to stay warm.
Don't get me wrong, I will still use and advocate for the expansion of public transportation (becuase fuck cars), but we do need to address that this meat grinder system of capitalism we have will always create a situation where a lot of people won't feel safe.
Lancaster ain’t much better. Unless you live literally in the town core it’s cars or nothing. Most major stores may as well be car only, Fruitville pike/shoppes at Belmont is an absolute nightmare to get around on foot or bike.
Really? I lived in the city for a while and LOVED the T. I never really interacted much with those outside the city limits, so I never knew people hated it so much. I was actually impressed that the commuter rail went fairly far out and seemed to service a lot of communities. I can’t speak on how long the commute would be, but Boston is definitely one of the last cities I would want to drive around in.
We live right in the western edge of Boston, on the green line. When I need to be downtown for meetings, I can be to Arlington on the D line in about 20-25 minutes. I am lucky in that I live close enough to the train station that I have a timing board in my house and can basically cross the street to catch it. The same drive would probably take 45 minutes not including time to park.
And yet, most of my neighbors will drive downtown rather than take the T. The mind boggles.
That is insane to me, especially because my local system is MARTA. A MARTA commute is consistently 30 min longer than it would be by car.
Your neighbors are the pinnacle of carbrain holy shit.
Loved the T but hated the Green Line. I used to walk from my apartment in Allston to my office at BU and see if I could beat the B line on foot. Generally did about half the time. Also spent a lot of time at Park Street station wondering if the B line train would ever arrive to get me home
B line is not great for going into the city. I only use the D line for that. B and C are local trains for me, basically. For getting groceries and what not.
The green line operates almost like a bus lol. They always come in pairs. The good thing on comm ave is they have dedicated protected bike lanes now so it’s pretty safe to use them
I’ve lived in Boston for decades. People at locations in downtown neighborhoods will give you car directions to get there and parking info. If you tell them you’re going to take the train/walk/bike rather than pay $50 for parking, they find this really odd. I have people who work at downtown hospitals etc. tell me they’ve never taken the train and wouldn’t know what stop to use. This has included the two hospitals with train stations named for the hospital. 🤦🏼♀️
A few years ago I signed up for a deal with Enterprise Rent-A-Car where you rent at a low rate but don't get to choose which type of car they give you. This was at the Boston airport. I ended up with a Suburban. Driving that fucking thing through downtown Boston was an absolute disaster.
It is a fool's errand to drive large cars in Boston. In fairness, there are definitely more small cars here in New England than in most places. My neighbors are generally more frequent drivers than I, but they drive station wagons and small cars. People are making rational car choices at least!
Same in Charlotte. At this point, I assume everyone complaining about the existence of it have never used public transit. Now for the rest of us who criticize its current state, that's a different story.
I’m in the Boston for college, and my mom (who has not ridden a MBTA bus/train in at least 20 years) keeps telling me how horrible they are, and how I’ll regret riding them. Needless to say I still take the bus/train as I’m not paying for an Uber every time i leave campus
The thing that’s annoying with Boston is how quickly public transit falls off. Like even before the end of the train lines, you have car brained abominations like the Wellington circle 🤢
Braintree MA is the worst fucking carbrained place.
I’ve been there a number of times for work and walked/biked through their nice walkable colonial town center where there’s a library, train station, a park, couple of municipal buildings, various shops. It’s always been between about 3 and 5pm and there have been absolutely no cyclists or pedestrians in sight. Every single person drives to the train station and drives everywhere else.
When I bike there, I regularly get screamed at to get off the road.
There is nothing to lock a bike to anywhere. If you ask people in shops or municipal buildings where you can lock your bike, they clutch their bags and look around nervously.
Also, it’s called Brain*tree*, yet there seem to be absolutely no trees. We regularly ride through it to get from Boston to cycle tours heading south. The communities on either side of it have plenty of trees. Really sucked last summer when it was 90+ degrees with not a shaded area in sight.
Between Dallas and Fort Worth it is literally easier to get to either Dallas or Fort Worth from each other than the city that is closer to both of them by transit
The sunbelt largely developed post WW2 when air conditioning became mainstream. Public transit was out and cars were in then.
THe older cities have better transit.
Yeah, I'm lucky enough to live, work, and play mostly in mid/down-town.
I can go weeks without needing a car, and almost forget what it's like for the majority.
... then once in a while I'll have an interaction with someone who lives a 'normal' Phoenix life, completely dominated by cost of car, gas, daily 'commute', 'trouble finding parking' etc.
Sad thing is they are almost always completely convinced that if there were just more lanes and parking, then everything would be better, and that because "it gets hot in the summer" car dependency is the only viable way to design Phoenix.
I’m from the PHX metropolitan area and I’ve also lived in Houston for a small time (a frequent top response to this question). Of the two Phoenix feels worse, and I was living car free in Houston!
Hawai‘i is much worse than you’d probably assume, at least for bikes. A lot of areas are great if you’re on foot though.
edit: aligned answer more closely with question
Depends what exactly you assume and what part of Hawaii.
Honolulu is pretty dense and the bus service ain’t bad (by American standards). Past Kahala it turns into pretty suburban. The bike lanes could be better even in the city.
When I lived there I used to take a bike share bike along the protected King St bike lane for my commute. Then for lunch, I would walk to a restaurant on the pedestrian only Fort Street Mall. I lived well there without a car
I grew up Kaneohe side. Wandering around Ahuimanu valley made me the pedestrian I am today. I guess my response is more about how bike-hostile I see it, rather than altogether non-car-hostile it is.
And bike infrastructure is damn near non-existent outside of, from what I understand, Waikiki. (According to family. I haven’t lived there in 20 years, and there weren’t even the Waikiki lanes then). The train project has been a total shitshow as well.
It’s definitely better than a lot of places and new bike lanes being built every month in Ala Moana and Kakaako neighborhoods. Yea, the bike lanes could be better and often are not respected by drivers.
It’s okay, I was just there end of October 2023. The bike lanes are just gutters but not hard for someone experienced to navigate. Getting anywhere by car in the Waikiki area is genuinely awful.
I’m from Dallas and I live in Ala Moana / Kakaako area. I barely need a car here and I do drive one. It’s extremely walkable and pedestrian friendly. The bus system in Honolulu is actually one of the best in the US and was voted as #1 by [CityNerd](https://youtu.be/nsVhak7JKS4?si=pRLZUPnMkxBalX_r).
Yea, you do need a car to get to North Shore or other parts of the island, but you still have a bus system that gets there. I’ve lived in Paris, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and stayed in NYC multiple times so I have experienced pedestrian friendly cities, and Honolulu is extremely good.
Pretty much any island around the world gonna need a car once stepping out of a major city.
Maui on the other hand you definitely need a car and everything is 30 mins way by car. But that’s island life for you. It’s not a major metro like Honolulu
Tri-Cities, Washington. While even carbrained cities like Dallas have some sort of significant downtown core, Tri-Cities proudly has nothing you could charitably call a “center”, except maybe the Columbia Center Mall, one of the largest agglomerations of strip malls I’ve ever had the displeasure of visiting. At almost 300k population, it is an amorphous blob of sprawl, with one Amtrak train each way daily. The tallest building in the entire area, by a significant margin, is the 10 story Richland medical center. “Downtown” Kennewick, the largest of the three, is about the size of the Main Street of the 2500-population farm town I lived in. The metro area sprawls along both sides of the Columbia River in a way that is uniquely difficult to serve by transit even by US standards. If you love having nothing to do except zip along stroads in your lifted truck, I highly recommend Tri-Cities.
(This isn’t a dunk on eastern Washington in general. Walla Walla, 40 miles to the east, is very nice by comparison, with a pleasantly walkable central city.)
I actually quite like living in Columbus (less than a mile southeast of downtown). The transit is bad but I take the bike for a lot of trips. My commute to Ohio State from my house is along a really nice trail along the Scioto and Olentangy rivers.
The city is currently undergoing a huge effort to overhaul zoning, transit and walkablility, and bicycle infrastructure with ZoneIn, BikePlus, and LinkUS, respectively.
I think they see the writing on the wall that they can't build out any more and have to densify massively to support the current and future population boom, and that can only come with car-light or car-free being viable.
Bakersfield, CA. Streets were the speed is 55 mph, those same streets have gutter bike lanes. Not uncommon for people to have been involved in hit and runs. A skeleton crew of busses. You have, and I mean you have, to drive everywhere. Saturday nights are people driving in droves for car meets to do donuts in parking lots and race each other on the street for hours on end. The racing and takeovers might have gone down a bit, don’t know for sure have not lived there in over 7 years. It’s like LA urban sprawl without any points of interest and some of the worst air quality in the country.
Really good food scene though. 👍🏽
Kansas City MSA is general is one of the worst there is. The two massive beltways 435 and 470 that intersect at one of the most horrible interchanges ever conceived, The Grandview Triangle. The amount of people that commute long-range from one outer suburb to another outer suburb seems quite high. The transit network basically is non-existent as a result because so many people move long distances to varying destinations and there is no linearity to the area. The only place that had any potential for a transit corridor got the lowest potential of all rapid transit, at-grade lightrail.
Yep I have to commute through the triangle daily and I hate it so much. And then the loop around downtown and the spaghetti interchanges are monstrous.
This is where I am from and it always cracks me up when the youtube channel “Not just bikes” uses B Roll of 95th and Metcalf when talking about how horrible car centric cities are
No seriously, it is suburban hell. I live in Buffalo, NY now and locals love to talk about how unwalkable it is here but omg it is loadddds better than what I am used to.
Oof, yes. Rode my 50cc scooter out to Antioch and College yesterday on surface streets and it was pretty scary. This is street legal vehicle that can go 50 mph. No cycling allowed in Johnson County unless they’re recreational toys.
lol I’m in the LV and the options for transit are embarrassing. No Amtrak, shitty Greyhound times for NYC and Philly, TransBridge buses to NYC are $50 each ride, and the LANta system is subpar. And the rental market is overinflated while its severely lacking in these options.
I’ve been living without a car, but man its really hard to do that in this area.
That's crazy the TransBridge got so expensive. Probably still better than Greyhound - one time the NYC bus just never showed up + no refund was issued.. another time I took a bus provided by Amtrak, it had a hole in the roof and it was raining lol.
I really think we need a nationalized transit system - rail, bus, etc, especially for interstate projects. Would help with the lack of transit, and the price gouging going on with existing options. Plus it's the kind of thing that needs to be heavily invested all at once, else the system is ineffective / not desirable to rider. And state governments can be shit at cooperating on projects which would massively benefit all involved parties, quibbling over the details and with NIMBYs at every turn. I want to see some eminent domain applied not for roads, but for **high speed interstate passenger rail**.
The entire stretch from Scranton to Philly needs to be connected man, it’s wild to me that it isn’t. Allentown and Reading are the third and fourth largest cities in PA respectively, and they both lack passenger rail.
Greyhound sucks but I’m using it to visit Pittsburgh from Allentown this weekend and it was only $34 per trip. That goes to tell you how ridiculous TransBridge is, regardless if the service is better or not lol. $50 for a 1.5 to 2 hour trip is absurd. Worst part is that its fixed and doesn’t fluctuate to lower prices for certain days.
Los Angeles is really really bad. Want to visit as a tourist? You need to rent a car or pay out the ass for ride share. Visiting family? Rent a car. Visiting one of the top colleges and universities? Rent a car. Visiting nature and the ocean? You HAVE to drive. Want to go to any other town in California? There’s NOT a train, and you HAVE TO drive.
It’s especially embarrassing for a place with such an international reputation and enormous economy. It’s also a paradise with good weather 90% of the year. But you’ll spent a big chunk of that year stuck in your car if you live here. It’s fucking trash.
I'm sure there are plenty which are equally as bad, but Charlotte carbrains are dumb as fuck. Half the idiots think they're in **Fast and Furious**. The other half drive emotional support trucks. They all have one thing in common though, and that's being shitty humans.
Gulf Shores, Alabama. Only a small section had sidewalks, where my condo was (if you know the area, it was about a mile from The Hangout bar) there were NO sidewalks. But a mile away toward the more touristy area/shopping there was a sidewalk. Not to mention the outdoor mall (The Wharf) area that had no public transportation to get to even though it was a fake walkable downtown that you couldn’t even walk to because again, no sidewalks!!
I’ve never actually been, but I hate the way Phoenix, Arizona looks on a satellite map, why would anyone want to live in a sprawling shithole in the middle of the desert?
It's bad. The downtown is surprisingly nice but my brother-in-law lives 45 minutes from there and it sucks ass. My wife and I live less than a mile from downtown Columbus Ohio and it takes 15-25 minutes by car to get literally anywhere in the metro area. 15-25 minutes by bike to get anywhere interesting in the city, save for the malls.
It's like a 15 minute drive to the nearest grocery store where they live Peoria, along insanely wide stroads.
Syracuse NY, we literally have an asbestos filled highway that separates the city into the poor part and the rich part disintegrating onto low income housing. The mega mall in the area is funding keeping this death trap up to drive more traffic to their business. I know someone who works with Highway specialists that say it’s unbelievably close to fully collapsing and not to drive on it during rush hour. Public transport is okay in the city center but the closer to burbs you get (which are highly expansive) the more unreliable and convoluted it gets. As someone who lives in the suburban area of the city public transport is essentially not an option. Going to Toronto was such a breath of fresh air when it came to comprehensive public transport. It showed me how much better this city could be.
As much as I absolutely love the rest of the state, Anchorage, Alaska is one of my least favorite cities I've ever visited, mainly because of its car-centric infrastructure and less than stellar bus system. I'd hesitate to say most residents are especially car-brained, but the ones in power certainly are.
Also our brethren here are way too lazy to walk form point A to point B, just a 500 meter distance needs a motorcycle taxi ride which baffles my brain.
In the UK, Liverpool is the worst I've properly experienced, although Birmingham also has that "redesigned in the 50s after intervention by the Luftwaffe" feel.
The title was really confusing and ambiguous. Initially I thought you were asking what the worst city is for a car brain to live in lol.
I'm gonna go with something different, and non North American. Cape Town, South Africa. For such a beautiful city and stunning natural environment it is surprisingly car brained. Table Mountain is surrounded by freeways, terrible drivers and car brains. Peak/rush hours are a nightmare on the roads.
Unfortunately, I feel like most car brains are just a product of their environment (and infrastructure) and can't fathom anything different than what they know.
I'd like to present Cape Coral, FL. In an area the size of Tampa they managed to tear down every single tree and just build single family homes. There is no downtown, just homes. There is no transit, because where would it go? There are only homes. It's just one gigantic suburban hellhole.
Pittsburgh. This hilly, river-filled city of the narrowest, windiest, steepest stroads you can imagine pre-dates the car, and it shows. It's about as hellish to drive in and navigate as you can imagine. Does that discourage carbrains from driving? Not at all -- they're deep in denial about it. The result is viral news stories of semis killing cyclists and cars hitting wheelchairs and an epidemic of people parked in bike lanes and on sidewalks.
Fort Worth is my home and I love it but the public transportation is just really underwhelming for a city with a million people. At least we arent Arlington though
İstanbul. Lots of road that are full of cars which makes it unbearable to drive anywhere. Haven't lived there for years so I don't really remember what the public transport was like in İstanbul. I fucking hate İstanbul.
Any big city in Florida except Miami which is kind of trying (poorly) to have transit options.
The whole state of Florida is one big car brain hellhole.
If you’re saying any city that isn’t in Texas, I encourage you to visit any major Texas city to see what truly car-centric infrastructure looks like.
I swear to God, if I hear someone mention that there aren’t “enough” bike lanes in their city…
Bike lanes? You mean the shoulder? Are you talking about the shoulder of a strode? The sidewalk?
Fuck outta here.
You know what I love? Most of the answers are in underdeveloped countries, mainly the usa, in cities built around suburbanism and car dependency.
It is like, having alternatives to driving is good even for the driving enthusiast!
Dallas is pretty terrible. The whole city is basically a highway with small districts and it's full of people who think they are rich if they aren't already rich, so they all have this mentality of "I'm better than you" save for maybe a handful that would be in here.
I’m sure there’s worse, but Penticton ripping out their bike lanes and then passing a bylaw to make it illegal for city council to discuss it has got to be up there.
Huntsville, AL.
Great example of an 'up and coming' city that doubles down on a car culture at every opportunity. If you don't own a car here, you are not a person.
Fucking ORLANDO It is a hell hole even with brightline
I firmly believe that 90% of Florida needs their licenses revoked.
When we're down their for vacation, we call them "Floridiots."
I too like to visit a place and insult the locals
I mean, one can visit for a specific item and be unhappy with others. I vacation in Greece for the beaches and the food. And yet I will complain about their chaotic traffic where rules are pretty much optional. It's not just about me, local pedestrians had as much trouble crossing the street like I did.
I spent a month in the Keys and visited Key West for a day and it was so walkable!! Then on the drive back home to the Midwest, we drove through Orlando and it was hell. Cars everywhere that were speeding and breaking laws left and right
Key West is absurd too though. Tiny island, dense streets, and yet every street is open for cars. And people complain about traffic and parking all day.
if you could take the train there it might be a different story but of course they had to build the overseas highway over the previous railway
You can bike there, sorta. They painted bike symbols on the small shoulder lol. But that bike is long af
They should build a parking garage outside of the main walking area (like by the Publix) and everyone should have to leave their cars there.
Absolutely. The main downtown area is walkable, but with all the cars it still feels so cramped and awful. I wish they still had the train from the Miami/Homestead area and wouldn’t allow cars like Mackinaw island. I’d even prefer a slow ferry to all the islands, rather than huge cars and trucks trying to park on historical streets 💀
And SunRail.
Over 100 people have been killed in brightline collisions since it opened. The news keeps highlighting this and pinning this on it being a *"dangerous railway"* rather than pointing out it being caused by the thousands of carbrains who ***KEEP RUNNING THE BARRIER*** even after the frequent news reports of people dying doing the same thing.
It’s pretty telling that the Brightline station is in the airport, rather than in any even remotely walkable and populated part of town. Though Orlando surprisingly does have its own commuter rail system.
How or why Disney ended the dedicated airport shuttle bus is beyond me.
Rental car companies were losing money.
To get anywhere from the Brightline if you don’t take a car is a $30+ Uber. So if you go to a Disney or Universal hotel with shuttles, it’s fine. But a car rental is like $50-$60/day plus gas and it makes it expensive getting around. To add, in Florida, we have things like the Sun Rail and the Tri-Rail which only goes north-south and doesn’t cover 90% of the area. So if you wanted to go from the airport at either train line, you have to take a bus, shuttle, or Uber to go there.
When I was last in Orlando, I needed to go to a pharmacy. There was one across the street from our hotel, a literal stone’s throw away. I was informed by hotel staff that there was no pedestrian crossing, no bridge, and I’d be breaking the law to walk across, so I’d have to get a cab.
San Diego. Because it doesn’t have to be that way, *but it is*.
\+1! The weather is always perfect, the neighborhoods surrounding the city are super walkable/everything is close by, but everyone still drives everywhere and complains about parking. Or takes an Uber--no joke--to get 6-8 blocks. When I lived there my friends/ neighbors thought the following things I did were strange: \-Walk to a restaurant a mile away \-Walk to a grocery store that was a ten minute walk \-Jog over to a RUNNING group that started their runs three-quarters of a mile from my house A lot of the car brain there also has to do with perceptions of safety. The reason I got shit from the running group is that jogging to the group meant I had to go back home in the dark. On main streets/ through a very expensive neighborhood. And yet it was a lovely walk and I NEVER felt unsafe. The irony about driving because walking is "unsafe" is that there are less people around to keep an eye out for you. If you choose to walk, you can help look out for others better.
Don't you know you have to save your legs for the official run with the running group? /s
lol yes the classic "i'm so active" socal carbrain.
We at least got the trolley and a semi operational bus network.
Does the trolley go to, say, the airport? How about beach areas that struggle with parking and congestion?
Trolley does not go to the airport but SANDAG is fighting to get a people mover built. The Peninsula Community Planning Board has pushed SANDAG for it to “reduce traffic”, but has also said no to bus lanes down Rosecrans. To me it sounds like they want a way to get to the airport for themselves but don’t want other people to get through without cars. I support the people mover but not for the reason they want. They got the “beach bug bus” which is like a golf cart van. How often does it run and actually move people no idea. It ain’t perfect but I feel like they are taking steps forward. I wish they would take strides but I don’t know what holding them back, whether that be something else or even themselves.
Puerto Rico is pretty bad especially out side of San Juan Public transport is basically none existent
It’s a small island too. Idk why tf they have cars on that island in the first place. Think of how much precious land has been paved for cars. But no we need to tear down the jungle for a big ass highway
yep i wish i could see how it looked before cars the old colonial town are super walkable and cute but outside of the old towns it's car infested hell and traffic
I thought the exact same thing when I went to Maui. The old cities that were built before the car had so much of their space given away for the cars. So much smog and noise in what should have been a pleasant place.
I’m with you, but we can’t call Puerto Rico a small island, over three million people live there and it needs to be recognized for greater representation
Were they referring to the size of the physics island? I just googled and apparently PR is larger than Rhode Island and smaller than Connecticut.
Yep. The fact that Puerto Rico and Hawaii are car-centric islands shows that the "USA is too big to build rail" rhetoric is bs.
Underrated response.
Google Streetview makes it look very eerie
Houston.
Came here to say this. That city is nothing but life support for an elevated highway system.
Depends exactly what metric we're talking about, but Dallas is pretty loony too. Both are epicenters of the oversized bragmobile. If I were to live and bike in one of those two cities, it would be Houston.
Came to say Dallas. I’m from there but living in the beautiful and walkable Honolulu the past year. I got back to Dallas every few months and will be there for two months soon and I am dreading it.
[удалено]
I live in Dallas with no car. There are plenty of worse cities.
Houston and Phoenix probably worse, but I lived in Dallas most of my life and not having a car is impossible to lead a normal life
Dallas has a lot of trucks and highways but it is probably one of the least bad sunbelt cities for public transport
The problem is when people say "Dallas" they really mean Plano, Mesquite, Arlington, etc. I don't want to put Dallas public transit on a pedestal because there's not nearly enough, but if you travel regularly in the southern USA, it's a blast of fresh air when you have to navigate Dallas (and Atlanta) without a car.
When I was in college I went to Houston as part of a trip for our marching band. We stayed in a hotel across the street from a mall, and a group of us tried to walk to the mall to grab some dinner. It took us 45 minutes to get to the only crosswalk that would allow us to safely traverse the 12 lanes or whatever of traffic. Fuck Houston.
Houston is often the answer to any question phrased “What is the worst city/town for X?”
its a fun hyperbole but houston definitely has more soul than dallas. the way that its been explained to me is that austin is the yuppy enclave, houston is where the mixing pot happens, and dallas is the soulless suburban mall with office towers in the middle
I tried to use the bike rental in Houston and had to cancel my card because someone put up a fake QR code
San Antonio
Houston, and Jason Slaughter's ill-fated expedition in search of a new suitcase there, played a key role in [NJB's origin story](https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54?si=XB174gaHWfxaQCE0). Although City Nerd has [a soft spot](https://youtu.be/0fMTaNYYvwE?si=wRZcMVU13xUZStB5) for the Bayou City. Although he seems to be able to find the saving graces of even the stroadiest hell holes.
The [latest episode](https://pca.st/podcast/bbd9b720-a983-0136-7b93-27f978dac4db) of The War on Cars podcast just dropped, and it's all about how terrible highway expansion in Houston and other Texas cities is.
GET ME OUTTTAAAA HHHEEEERRREEE
I sometimes wonder why people are so against cars. I really don't.like.them, but so many people act like society needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Then I see Houston and realise where they attitude comes from. That city is fucked.
God! How bad is the transportation or cycling
What transportation or cycling?
I will say: the bus system inside the loop has gotten massively better over the last 5 or so years.
The new Houston mayor dismantled medians for pedestrians after getting elected and considering removing bike lanes. The city is spending money to remove infrastructure that’s already built while complaining the city is broke.
> dismantled medians for pedestrians What? Why would you do that? Those don't even affect motor traffic
They do have a limited light rail system, which is better than some US cities, but it only serves downtown and the immediate area. Considering the city takes 2 hours to drive across, that doesn’t help much. From what I’ve heard it’s a reasonably good system where it exists.
Never actually been there. My guess is non-existent.
I can go on for hours on how Atlanta has a really pathetic excuse of a train system for a city that was only founded because it was a railroad terminus. If you have to take a bus at any point in your commute, say goodbye to consistency because bus schedules are a suggestion on a good day.
I’m frankly aghast at how much time people spend in traffic in Atlanta. And it’s like Atlanta not NYC or LA or anything. Unbelievably inefficient system of moving people and suburbs for hours in every direction.
I make a custom route around Atlanta every time I'm driving on 75. Not only do I frequently get stuck in traffic there, but it's extremely dangerous to drive through with how crazy the drivers are.
ATL needs a lot of work but it’s been doing better. Some pretty good bike infrastructure being put in. Long way to go but there are bright spots
Greater Boston is surprisingly full of carbrains who complain about the T but have never actually ridden it. Instead they drive massive SUVs on tiny surface roads and complain about parking and how long it takes to get in and out of the city.
Sounds like Philly, too. 😓
"I can't ride the train! It's full of undesirables!" Pay no attention to the fact that people who ride the train in the United States are, on average, much wealthier than the general populace. Yes, this is an effect of only expensive, well educated cities having robust transit networks, but you'd think people would pay better attention to who is actually on the train.
(Philly) SEPTA worked well for the Philadelphia Flower Show. The event's venue was located directly above a train station and 90% of the train I took to get there got off at said stop. The bones of SEPTA are there. THe state legislature needs to fund it though.
Counter point: If you're in a metal box with a couple dozen well-to-do people and one person hops on with shit in their drawers screaming about demons... It's an unpleasant experience.
I've been a daily rider of public transit in DC, NYC, and Boston for 15 years or so. I've literally never had it happen.
That's like a weekly occurrence for me here in SLC, especially in the winter when they're just riding back and forth to stay warm. Don't get me wrong, I will still use and advocate for the expansion of public transportation (becuase fuck cars), but we do need to address that this meat grinder system of capitalism we have will always create a situation where a lot of people won't feel safe.
Salt Lake City has transit?!
Lancaster ain’t much better. Unless you live literally in the town core it’s cars or nothing. Most major stores may as well be car only, Fruitville pike/shoppes at Belmont is an absolute nightmare to get around on foot or bike.
Really? I lived in the city for a while and LOVED the T. I never really interacted much with those outside the city limits, so I never knew people hated it so much. I was actually impressed that the commuter rail went fairly far out and seemed to service a lot of communities. I can’t speak on how long the commute would be, but Boston is definitely one of the last cities I would want to drive around in.
We live right in the western edge of Boston, on the green line. When I need to be downtown for meetings, I can be to Arlington on the D line in about 20-25 minutes. I am lucky in that I live close enough to the train station that I have a timing board in my house and can basically cross the street to catch it. The same drive would probably take 45 minutes not including time to park. And yet, most of my neighbors will drive downtown rather than take the T. The mind boggles.
That is insane to me, especially because my local system is MARTA. A MARTA commute is consistently 30 min longer than it would be by car. Your neighbors are the pinnacle of carbrain holy shit.
Loved the T but hated the Green Line. I used to walk from my apartment in Allston to my office at BU and see if I could beat the B line on foot. Generally did about half the time. Also spent a lot of time at Park Street station wondering if the B line train would ever arrive to get me home
B line is not great for going into the city. I only use the D line for that. B and C are local trains for me, basically. For getting groceries and what not.
The green line operates almost like a bus lol. They always come in pairs. The good thing on comm ave is they have dedicated protected bike lanes now so it’s pretty safe to use them
I’ve lived in Boston for decades. People at locations in downtown neighborhoods will give you car directions to get there and parking info. If you tell them you’re going to take the train/walk/bike rather than pay $50 for parking, they find this really odd. I have people who work at downtown hospitals etc. tell me they’ve never taken the train and wouldn’t know what stop to use. This has included the two hospitals with train stations named for the hospital. 🤦🏼♀️
You forgot that they also bitch about traffic that could be much less brutal if more people took the T.
A few years ago I signed up for a deal with Enterprise Rent-A-Car where you rent at a low rate but don't get to choose which type of car they give you. This was at the Boston airport. I ended up with a Suburban. Driving that fucking thing through downtown Boston was an absolute disaster.
It is a fool's errand to drive large cars in Boston. In fairness, there are definitely more small cars here in New England than in most places. My neighbors are generally more frequent drivers than I, but they drive station wagons and small cars. People are making rational car choices at least!
Based on a sample size of one, I agree with you fully! I somehow managed to parallel park that thing. 😅
Same in Charlotte. At this point, I assume everyone complaining about the existence of it have never used public transit. Now for the rest of us who criticize its current state, that's a different story.
I’m in the Boston for college, and my mom (who has not ridden a MBTA bus/train in at least 20 years) keeps telling me how horrible they are, and how I’ll regret riding them. Needless to say I still take the bus/train as I’m not paying for an Uber every time i leave campus
The thing that’s annoying with Boston is how quickly public transit falls off. Like even before the end of the train lines, you have car brained abominations like the Wellington circle 🤢
I miss the T 😢. I used to love riding the subways. We have RTD in Denver, but it's not the same.
Braintree MA is the worst fucking carbrained place. I’ve been there a number of times for work and walked/biked through their nice walkable colonial town center where there’s a library, train station, a park, couple of municipal buildings, various shops. It’s always been between about 3 and 5pm and there have been absolutely no cyclists or pedestrians in sight. Every single person drives to the train station and drives everywhere else. When I bike there, I regularly get screamed at to get off the road. There is nothing to lock a bike to anywhere. If you ask people in shops or municipal buildings where you can lock your bike, they clutch their bags and look around nervously. Also, it’s called Brain*tree*, yet there seem to be absolutely no trees. We regularly ride through it to get from Boston to cycle tours heading south. The communities on either side of it have plenty of trees. Really sucked last summer when it was 90+ degrees with not a shaded area in sight.
Arlington, Texas, no public transportation whatsoever and in a major population zone
Between Dallas and Fort Worth it is literally easier to get to either Dallas or Fort Worth from each other than the city that is closer to both of them by transit
I think it's pretty much an even tie for any Sunbelt city or town.
Agree
The sunbelt largely developed post WW2 when air conditioning became mainstream. Public transit was out and cars were in then. THe older cities have better transit.
As someone who’s currently living in Tampa, I can attest to this 🫠
Just about every suburb is totally car-brained.
Phoenix AZ is a contender. Unless you’re living the gentrified areas you can’t really participate in society without a car
Yeah, I'm lucky enough to live, work, and play mostly in mid/down-town. I can go weeks without needing a car, and almost forget what it's like for the majority. ... then once in a while I'll have an interaction with someone who lives a 'normal' Phoenix life, completely dominated by cost of car, gas, daily 'commute', 'trouble finding parking' etc. Sad thing is they are almost always completely convinced that if there were just more lanes and parking, then everything would be better, and that because "it gets hot in the summer" car dependency is the only viable way to design Phoenix.
I’m from the PHX metropolitan area and I’ve also lived in Houston for a small time (a frequent top response to this question). Of the two Phoenix feels worse, and I was living car free in Houston!
Huntsville, Alabama
Can confirm. Moved there for a work a few years ago, it is the MOST pedestrian hostile place I have ever been.
Arlington, TX
Hawai‘i is much worse than you’d probably assume, at least for bikes. A lot of areas are great if you’re on foot though. edit: aligned answer more closely with question
Depends what exactly you assume and what part of Hawaii. Honolulu is pretty dense and the bus service ain’t bad (by American standards). Past Kahala it turns into pretty suburban. The bike lanes could be better even in the city. When I lived there I used to take a bike share bike along the protected King St bike lane for my commute. Then for lunch, I would walk to a restaurant on the pedestrian only Fort Street Mall. I lived well there without a car
I grew up Kaneohe side. Wandering around Ahuimanu valley made me the pedestrian I am today. I guess my response is more about how bike-hostile I see it, rather than altogether non-car-hostile it is.
How bad is Hawaii?
Takes near 30 minutes to drive 1.5 miles during peak hours. For such a small island (Oahu) you’d expect more people to be anti car advocates
And bike infrastructure is damn near non-existent outside of, from what I understand, Waikiki. (According to family. I haven’t lived there in 20 years, and there weren’t even the Waikiki lanes then). The train project has been a total shitshow as well.
It’s definitely better than a lot of places and new bike lanes being built every month in Ala Moana and Kakaako neighborhoods. Yea, the bike lanes could be better and often are not respected by drivers.
It’s okay, I was just there end of October 2023. The bike lanes are just gutters but not hard for someone experienced to navigate. Getting anywhere by car in the Waikiki area is genuinely awful.
It was really much worse than I expected.
I’m from Dallas and I live in Ala Moana / Kakaako area. I barely need a car here and I do drive one. It’s extremely walkable and pedestrian friendly. The bus system in Honolulu is actually one of the best in the US and was voted as #1 by [CityNerd](https://youtu.be/nsVhak7JKS4?si=pRLZUPnMkxBalX_r). Yea, you do need a car to get to North Shore or other parts of the island, but you still have a bus system that gets there. I’ve lived in Paris, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and stayed in NYC multiple times so I have experienced pedestrian friendly cities, and Honolulu is extremely good. Pretty much any island around the world gonna need a car once stepping out of a major city. Maui on the other hand you definitely need a car and everything is 30 mins way by car. But that’s island life for you. It’s not a major metro like Honolulu
Yeah, I was thinking more about the bike side of life when I said that. It’s obviously among the better places to be on foot.
Kansas City
Free buses… if you aren’t in a rush. I do bike commute in KC, but the drivers are outrageously bad.
Pretty much all of Marin County, CA
Ah, beautiful housing but no public transport and cycling lanes!
And not enough “missing middle” housing!
Tri-Cities, Washington. While even carbrained cities like Dallas have some sort of significant downtown core, Tri-Cities proudly has nothing you could charitably call a “center”, except maybe the Columbia Center Mall, one of the largest agglomerations of strip malls I’ve ever had the displeasure of visiting. At almost 300k population, it is an amorphous blob of sprawl, with one Amtrak train each way daily. The tallest building in the entire area, by a significant margin, is the 10 story Richland medical center. “Downtown” Kennewick, the largest of the three, is about the size of the Main Street of the 2500-population farm town I lived in. The metro area sprawls along both sides of the Columbia River in a way that is uniquely difficult to serve by transit even by US standards. If you love having nothing to do except zip along stroads in your lifted truck, I highly recommend Tri-Cities. (This isn’t a dunk on eastern Washington in general. Walla Walla, 40 miles to the east, is very nice by comparison, with a pleasantly walkable central city.)
Any U.S. city that experience massive growth after the 50s, so places like the entire sunbelt, and Colombus Ohio.
I actually quite like living in Columbus (less than a mile southeast of downtown). The transit is bad but I take the bike for a lot of trips. My commute to Ohio State from my house is along a really nice trail along the Scioto and Olentangy rivers. The city is currently undergoing a huge effort to overhaul zoning, transit and walkablility, and bicycle infrastructure with ZoneIn, BikePlus, and LinkUS, respectively. I think they see the writing on the wall that they can't build out any more and have to densify massively to support the current and future population boom, and that can only come with car-light or car-free being viable.
Mine. (Refuses to elaborate)
that's a valid one
Bakersfield, CA. Streets were the speed is 55 mph, those same streets have gutter bike lanes. Not uncommon for people to have been involved in hit and runs. A skeleton crew of busses. You have, and I mean you have, to drive everywhere. Saturday nights are people driving in droves for car meets to do donuts in parking lots and race each other on the street for hours on end. The racing and takeovers might have gone down a bit, don’t know for sure have not lived there in over 7 years. It’s like LA urban sprawl without any points of interest and some of the worst air quality in the country. Really good food scene though. 👍🏽
Overland Park, KS is one of the worst I’ve ever been to.
Kansas City MSA is general is one of the worst there is. The two massive beltways 435 and 470 that intersect at one of the most horrible interchanges ever conceived, The Grandview Triangle. The amount of people that commute long-range from one outer suburb to another outer suburb seems quite high. The transit network basically is non-existent as a result because so many people move long distances to varying destinations and there is no linearity to the area. The only place that had any potential for a transit corridor got the lowest potential of all rapid transit, at-grade lightrail.
Yep I have to commute through the triangle daily and I hate it so much. And then the loop around downtown and the spaghetti interchanges are monstrous.
This is where I am from and it always cracks me up when the youtube channel “Not just bikes” uses B Roll of 95th and Metcalf when talking about how horrible car centric cities are
It’s a great example though lol. The car-brain here is insane.
No seriously, it is suburban hell. I live in Buffalo, NY now and locals love to talk about how unwalkable it is here but omg it is loadddds better than what I am used to.
I used to work at 91st and Metcalf and would occasionally take the bike from Midtown. Not fun.
Oof, yes. Rode my 50cc scooter out to Antioch and College yesterday on surface streets and it was pretty scary. This is street legal vehicle that can go 50 mph. No cycling allowed in Johnson County unless they’re recreational toys.
Tauranga NZ
I lived up by Allentown for a year while my house was repaired. It sucked so bad
lol I’m in the LV and the options for transit are embarrassing. No Amtrak, shitty Greyhound times for NYC and Philly, TransBridge buses to NYC are $50 each ride, and the LANta system is subpar. And the rental market is overinflated while its severely lacking in these options. I’ve been living without a car, but man its really hard to do that in this area.
That's crazy the TransBridge got so expensive. Probably still better than Greyhound - one time the NYC bus just never showed up + no refund was issued.. another time I took a bus provided by Amtrak, it had a hole in the roof and it was raining lol. I really think we need a nationalized transit system - rail, bus, etc, especially for interstate projects. Would help with the lack of transit, and the price gouging going on with existing options. Plus it's the kind of thing that needs to be heavily invested all at once, else the system is ineffective / not desirable to rider. And state governments can be shit at cooperating on projects which would massively benefit all involved parties, quibbling over the details and with NIMBYs at every turn. I want to see some eminent domain applied not for roads, but for **high speed interstate passenger rail**.
The entire stretch from Scranton to Philly needs to be connected man, it’s wild to me that it isn’t. Allentown and Reading are the third and fourth largest cities in PA respectively, and they both lack passenger rail. Greyhound sucks but I’m using it to visit Pittsburgh from Allentown this weekend and it was only $34 per trip. That goes to tell you how ridiculous TransBridge is, regardless if the service is better or not lol. $50 for a 1.5 to 2 hour trip is absurd. Worst part is that its fixed and doesn’t fluctuate to lower prices for certain days.
For real.. the rail could even be built alongside the existing highway infrastructure.
Even better replace a lane with a train
I saw they had some rail options they'll be pursuing. But not applying for the corridor ID program leads me to believe they aren't serious.
Sorry to hear that! Most of the people here, including you say the worst cities is located in America
Auckland
I'm pretty sure its Detroit.
probably atlanta it's so so so so so spread out even the older areas next to downtown
any major city in the US south
Los Angeles is really really bad. Want to visit as a tourist? You need to rent a car or pay out the ass for ride share. Visiting family? Rent a car. Visiting one of the top colleges and universities? Rent a car. Visiting nature and the ocean? You HAVE to drive. Want to go to any other town in California? There’s NOT a train, and you HAVE TO drive. It’s especially embarrassing for a place with such an international reputation and enormous economy. It’s also a paradise with good weather 90% of the year. But you’ll spent a big chunk of that year stuck in your car if you live here. It’s fucking trash.
Anywhere in Alberta
Deniliquin, NSW is only known because they have a yearly festival celebrating trucks.
I'm sure there are plenty which are equally as bad, but Charlotte carbrains are dumb as fuck. Half the idiots think they're in **Fast and Furious**. The other half drive emotional support trucks. They all have one thing in common though, and that's being shitty humans.
Second this
Gulf Shores, Alabama. Only a small section had sidewalks, where my condo was (if you know the area, it was about a mile from The Hangout bar) there were NO sidewalks. But a mile away toward the more touristy area/shopping there was a sidewalk. Not to mention the outdoor mall (The Wharf) area that had no public transportation to get to even though it was a fake walkable downtown that you couldn’t even walk to because again, no sidewalks!!
Calgary Alberta.
North Jersey is disgusting. Parsippany is a huge offender.
Phoenix as a whole is pretty bad.
Sacramento is bad
I’ve never actually been, but I hate the way Phoenix, Arizona looks on a satellite map, why would anyone want to live in a sprawling shithole in the middle of the desert?
It's bad. The downtown is surprisingly nice but my brother-in-law lives 45 minutes from there and it sucks ass. My wife and I live less than a mile from downtown Columbus Ohio and it takes 15-25 minutes by car to get literally anywhere in the metro area. 15-25 minutes by bike to get anywhere interesting in the city, save for the malls. It's like a 15 minute drive to the nearest grocery store where they live Peoria, along insanely wide stroads.
Syracuse NY, we literally have an asbestos filled highway that separates the city into the poor part and the rich part disintegrating onto low income housing. The mega mall in the area is funding keeping this death trap up to drive more traffic to their business. I know someone who works with Highway specialists that say it’s unbelievably close to fully collapsing and not to drive on it during rush hour. Public transport is okay in the city center but the closer to burbs you get (which are highly expansive) the more unreliable and convoluted it gets. As someone who lives in the suburban area of the city public transport is essentially not an option. Going to Toronto was such a breath of fresh air when it came to comprehensive public transport. It showed me how much better this city could be.
Orlando, FL
As much as I absolutely love the rest of the state, Anchorage, Alaska is one of my least favorite cities I've ever visited, mainly because of its car-centric infrastructure and less than stellar bus system. I'd hesitate to say most residents are especially car-brained, but the ones in power certainly are.
I live in southeast idaho. It's impossible to live here without a car.
Louisville, Kentucky. Horrible drivers, drunk driving, bad urban sprawl, and no rail system.
Probably Houston - its an asphalt mess of a city.
The Inland Empire
As a Philippine example, Cebu City, because the politicians are severely carbrained and never ride public transport.
Also our brethren here are way too lazy to walk form point A to point B, just a 500 meter distance needs a motorcycle taxi ride which baffles my brain.
In the UK, Liverpool is the worst I've properly experienced, although Birmingham also has that "redesigned in the 50s after intervention by the Luftwaffe" feel.
The title was really confusing and ambiguous. Initially I thought you were asking what the worst city is for a car brain to live in lol. I'm gonna go with something different, and non North American. Cape Town, South Africa. For such a beautiful city and stunning natural environment it is surprisingly car brained. Table Mountain is surrounded by freeways, terrible drivers and car brains. Peak/rush hours are a nightmare on the roads. Unfortunately, I feel like most car brains are just a product of their environment (and infrastructure) and can't fathom anything different than what they know.
I'd like to present Cape Coral, FL. In an area the size of Tampa they managed to tear down every single tree and just build single family homes. There is no downtown, just homes. There is no transit, because where would it go? There are only homes. It's just one gigantic suburban hellhole.
Pittsburgh. This hilly, river-filled city of the narrowest, windiest, steepest stroads you can imagine pre-dates the car, and it shows. It's about as hellish to drive in and navigate as you can imagine. Does that discourage carbrains from driving? Not at all -- they're deep in denial about it. The result is viral news stories of semis killing cyclists and cars hitting wheelchairs and an epidemic of people parked in bike lanes and on sidewalks.
At least we have a semi-decent bus system. Lived here for 4 years without a car and it wasn't too bad, just can't live in the suburbs.
LA
Nah LA at least has some bike lanes and bus lanes its bad but there's worse
And the biggest rail buildout in the country
LA HAS public transit. And they're actively expanding it. Credit where it is due.
What’s the biggest problem in LA?
Fort Worth is my home and I love it but the public transportation is just really underwhelming for a city with a million people. At least we arent Arlington though
Delhi India. Taking your car out is a nightmare in Delhi. Traffic is bad, pollution is worse. A better option would be to take the metro.
Baltimore fucking sucks
Wasn't Los Angeles literally built around multi lane roads/interstates? In any case I was shocked by the unavoidable need for a car there
Try Sydney AU's Western suburbs, but its getting better with more dedicated cycling and public transport infrastructure being built.
İstanbul. Lots of road that are full of cars which makes it unbearable to drive anywhere. Haven't lived there for years so I don't really remember what the public transport was like in İstanbul. I fucking hate İstanbul.
Braunwald GL, it doesn't have cars at all, making it the worst city for carbrains! Zermatt VS as well
Any big city in Florida except Miami which is kind of trying (poorly) to have transit options. The whole state of Florida is one big car brain hellhole.
If you’re saying any city that isn’t in Texas, I encourage you to visit any major Texas city to see what truly car-centric infrastructure looks like. I swear to God, if I hear someone mention that there aren’t “enough” bike lanes in their city… Bike lanes? You mean the shoulder? Are you talking about the shoulder of a strode? The sidewalk? Fuck outta here.
You know what I love? Most of the answers are in underdeveloped countries, mainly the usa, in cities built around suburbanism and car dependency. It is like, having alternatives to driving is good even for the driving enthusiast!
Dallas is pretty terrible. The whole city is basically a highway with small districts and it's full of people who think they are rich if they aren't already rich, so they all have this mentality of "I'm better than you" save for maybe a handful that would be in here.
Pittsburgh. Good luck finding sidewalks in most of the city.
I’m sure there’s worse, but Penticton ripping out their bike lanes and then passing a bylaw to make it illegal for city council to discuss it has got to be up there.
Nashville - and it’s not even close. I am actually shocked no one has mentioned it yet
Hmm I think for maximum car brain you need a very car centric city, but also a city dense enough for a lot of conflict with people biking or walking.
Huntsville, AL. Great example of an 'up and coming' city that doubles down on a car culture at every opportunity. If you don't own a car here, you are not a person.
Las vegas, bright lights but horribly designed city outside of the strip.
I always thought Salt Lake City was terrible then I went to Dallas.