There are only a couple cities in the US where it is realistic for a normal (i.e. able to afford a car) person to live without a car, and most of those cities are already served by Acela.
There are way more than two cities in the US where it's reasonable to not own a car. What makes you say it's only two?! Just because you can't imagine doing it doesn't mean that other people aren't perfectly content to do so. Here are some cities that I happen to know of offhand where people I know live perfectly "normal" (to use your word) lives without cars, and this is just in the northeast of the US: Boston, NYC, Jersey City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Alexandria, Bethesda, and Arlington.
I can easily afford a car, but I don't own one because I don't have need for one very frequently, so it's simply cheaper to rent when I need one rather than have to worry about owning one 24/7.
I think this is the Acela corridor he was talking about. He probably misspoke when saying "a couple" - some people interpret that strictly as "two", while others interpret it loosely as "a handful" - but "most of these" implies that he meant the second meaning.
CydeWeys|8 years ago
I can easily afford a car, but I don't own one because I don't have need for one very frequently, so it's simply cheaper to rent when I need one rather than have to worry about owning one 24/7.
nostrademons|8 years ago