If you haven't been, then you don't know. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence... But you don't know, 'cause you haven't been. I have.

Takes over an hour to go 20 miles from the airport, to the city of Paris, on the light-rail/subway system. And that's a non-stop, direct train. By the time your whining arse has stood in line, bought the ticket, waited for the train, rode the train, gotten to your stop, and exited the subway, I would have rented a car, driven, and had been sitting there waiting for you for over a half an hour... And that's just a 20 mile trip...

But the reasons Europeans in the major cities use public transportation, and use bicycles, more than we do in the US, is directly the result of 1 thing. Just 1. It's not the price of oil. It's not the "great" mass transit systems. It's not 'cause they like to ride their bikes more. The 1 reason is simple. Parking.

European cities, and their streets, have been around for thousands of years. Which means most of the streets are only wide enough for 2 horse/buggies to pass each other, w/ no extra room on the side. You can drive whatever car you want, over there, but if you can't park it, then you've got a bit of a problem... The city streets, for the most part, are just too dam narrow to be efficient for moving auto traffic. So Europeans use mass transit, because that's their ONLY choice. In Paris and London (two cities I've been to), a Porsche 911 is a large car compared to most everything that's on the road. A Mini Cooper is larger than most everything on the road. Do you think people like to fold themselves into these things?? Heck no. No more so than we would. But if you want to drive a car, then that's what you have to buy, becuase you have to have something small to fit on the roads, and to be able to find a parking space.

Mass transit in Europe is defined by the lack of space. We don't have that problem, here, and probably never will.

But not a bit of that has anything to do w/ the price of oil.