Public transportation is a choice for some. Whether economic-driven or lifestyle. My point is its optional - you can't force people to take public transit.<p>Public transportation is necessary because not everyone can afford a private car or wants to drive a car (not everyone can bike - and biking in inclement weather is not a good experience).<p>Public transportation works poorly outside of urban centers because of grid density problems (in the suburbs, you can't cut through someone's yard to get to a bus stop - whereas in the city, regular blocks make it more direct to get to bus stops).<p>However, public transportation has to support the suburbs because a lot of lower-paid workers rely on it to get to their jobs in the suburbs. On many suburban bus routes, you will probably find it a maddening experience - as it is designed to go in loop-around fashion through office parks.<p>In other forums, its been argued that private auto industry gets a huge indirect subsidy from the government by the government supporting almost the majority of infrastructure road costs, wars to keep oil producers in check. The private auto industry has huge lobbying powers (see how much highway construction dollars came out of the last stimulus bill). It's also been argued that the true purpose of public transit is to give jobs to people.