I'd like to open this post with a disclaimer: I grew up in suburbia. Everyone in my family had a car by the time they turned 16, and before that, we had parents who were able to drive us to and from school, track practice, little league, etc. Public transit was never a big part of my life - it was something we'd use only when we thought parking was going to be too much of a pain in downtown Atlanta. It was a cheap and fairly safe alternative but never a preferred use of transportation. It was inconvenient for the most part, dirty, and rather slow. And I'll admit, that may sound snobby or pretentious, but that's simply how it was for me. I took it for granted growing up but that's just the way things were.
