Consider a typical afternoon commute for a parent - you go from work to your kids school to some after school activity (different destination every day) to a few grocery stores then back to the after school activity and then finally home. If you have three kids… now you’re going to three afternoon activities. And maybe two schools as well.

Sounds like it’d take about 5 hours with public transit, especially since for some of those you’d literally be getting off the bus stop, then 5 minutes later be back at the bus stop waiting for the next bus. Kids aren’t allowed to wait at bus stops these days… whoever is looking after the kid will only release them when the parent comes in to pick them up. Often the parent even has to type their password into a system that checks if they are approved to pick up the kid (most kidnappings crimes are committed by family, often a parent, and staff aren’t expected to keep on top of that… so they use databases).

I love public transit. But major cultural changes would be required for it to be my main form of commute.

Not quite. EVs can still do door to door transport, are faster portal to portal, and have a vastly more diverse infrastructure, including the ability to (at least in a limited extent) traverse areas without track or road infrastructure. Public transit is still better, especially for rail, in reducing energy losses due to wheel deformation, reduction of human fatigue and dependence on attentiveness, and in some cases station to station speed and net air resistance per passenger mile. Since this is technology instead of fuckcars, it seems reasonable not to circlejerk too much.

only things

Just to list a few things EVs are good at that public transit isn’t:

• private transportation that isn’t long-distance, as [email protected]’s comment describes
  • less total energy consumption
  • no awful emissions for everyone around you and for yourself, so e.g. inside a parking structure it wouldn’t be so awful to breathe
• anything you can’t do on public transit, such as:
  • moving small furniture
  • taking your pet to a vet, or anywhere else for that matter (it might be allowed on public transport in certain cases but it would still be much more of a hassle difference compared to normal human taking public transport vs personal car)
• it’s still good at driving on highways, it’s just better at driving in other scenarios.

I don’t want a car and I use public transportation, couldn’t let that fly though. EVs have their place. Not to mention electric buses are EVs and are even a better riding experience.