I agree with others here on that comment of yours about some more fundamental question being resolved. Really good points. For me, for example the choice between this car and that one just makes me think, though I have a Jeep that I love: that ideally the best choice might be a vastly expanded and efficient rail and bus system. I think a lot of Americans feel the same way after a few decades of being swamped almost by commodities.
Ride the trains in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and even Minneapolis. The level of crime and filth that you’ll find might change your mind.
I lost my love of driving when I sold my last muscle car. I’ll be happy when I can summon something like this to move me around.
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I’ve been using NYC’s public transportation system every day for decades. It’s fine, really.
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I rode them in London for years. Lived there 20 years without a car and half the hassle and expense car ownership involves.
However I could add that my choice would be safe, clean well maintained trains… obviously really, and one can argue that would be available were there resources better directed. Much of this is policy choice and frankly my long experience with pubic transport in the UK bear that out in all kinds of ways. Here in PA, potholes, deer, distracted driving makes it all pretty dangerous on the highways… I do and have used the local trains by the way in Philadelphia; they are fine.
However since you are spoiling for a reactionary fight I will stop here before the moderators have to intervene and we go too far ‘off topic’.
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I never felt so free as when I was able to ditch my car and excise everything having to do with its care and feeding out of my task manager. 
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Depends upon:
- how much time you have to make the decision
- how much of a perfectionist you are as to the solution i.e. how long is my list of actual requirements
- the cost of making a commitment i.e how fast/easily/cheaply can can I ditch it if something better comes along)
For me personally, my list of requirements is often very long, which immediately eliminates most of the available choices. I also prefer a perfect or near perfect solution over a fast one. I am often quite willing to ditch the issue temporarily if the available choices don’t meet enough of my requirements.
My sense, just informally, is that most people don’t like to spend a lot of time making decisions. I’m different in that respect. I’ll take as long as it bloody takes to get as close to exactly what I want as possible. And that may involve questioning my own values (such as when something that I want seems completely unavailable). And I’m much more willing to wait than it seems a lot of people are. For example,I lived for a year with no flooring and no backsplash in my kitchen because the colors that I wanted were out of style and I had very specific requirements for the design of the flooring. Eventually they showed up and 11 years later, I’m still loving my choices. And no I don’t drive myself crazy doing things this way, and I almost never regret my decisions.
I am enjoying all these good replies.
Yeah, here in Paoli I would prefer, to give a better example than public transport; decent sidewalks between me and Malvern where a lot of my ‘stuff’ is. I could easily walk there and would love to as I did in London and the UK. I can’t do that walk, like many in the US, because of gaps where there is any sidewalk at all making it a walk on the highway: some are forced to take that walk I notice. Basically policy choices and part of the way everything is geared to the automobile, my previous HOA was pretty much a parking lot with a few houses crammed round the perimeter. Off topic I know but the topic is hard to contain withing IT or Macs?
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