As the above comment mentioned, time is also a factor. My old beater that I bought for $800 that costs about $350 a year to keep on the road keeps my commute time a lot lower than it would be otherwise. I have a friend in a country with better public infrastructure than mine. His commute time by car is 3 times shorter than it is by bus, and he lives in a significantly denser area than I do.

Mass transit makes sense in cities, even between surrounding towns. But as soon as you get more rural public transit is so out of scope. It’s always easy to see the people who spent their whole life in urbanized areas by how unrealistic they talk about this subject.