I feel like people really underestimate the impact that your mode of transportation has on how you see and think about and interact with your city. Like, driving makes your city feel like a few islands, pockets of space where you regularly go and new ones you discover only when brought there for a purpose, but all amidst an ocean of just, filler. Taking public transit makes your city feel like a network of corridoors, a glowing grid along which you may discover new things, but whose alternate winding paths you only take when given to by circumstance. Cycling makes your city feel more human in its scale, and while you can only go so far, the spaces through which you travel are far more often built for people, not machines, and that difference is tangible, while your freedom of movement gives you more opportunities for exploration. Walking can only take you so far, but you see everything meant for you along those places, and every street feels like it carries potential, with no barriers to stopping and partaking of whatever piques your interest. I think, among these, driving is the one that by far most isolates you from the place you live, while the others are, in decreasing order, most utilitarian, and in increasing order, most personally connective to your shared space.
did you know? there is a type of metal chariot, powered by the bone-ichor of ancient dragons, that you can use to access—and quickly traverse—a labyrinthine realm of desolate, pitch-black stone known to scientists as “the american highway system”
be forewarned! the chariot does release a terrible curse that ravages the sky and boils the sea. but the King’s coffers are rich with coin from the Dragonbone Ichor Council, so there aren’t many alternatives <|:^/
"Rail only works over short distances" one of the most detached from reality carbrain statements I've ever read. Rail is objectively, demonstrably better to cover long distances than it is to cover short distances. Car culture legitimately gives you some kind of brain fungus.