When I was a truck driver, audiobooks were the reason I absolutely didn't mind traffic jams.

Coming back from my small island devoid of mass transit, I took a Paris->Marseille train and legitimately rediscovered the luxury of cutting through the entire country in 3hrs time without so much as a bump or a honk. No wine was involved though

This reads as if all Europeans ride trains in Alps multiple times a day. Guys... Nice view might be somewhere in Italy, France or Switzerland. Your typical speed train from Berlin to Frankfurt would have only fields and woods, and occasional city pass-through.

This also applies only to countries where rail network is developed. Take some Baltic countries or some far east Europe countries and your commute from city A to city B in a train would be a mild annoyance at best and a nightmare at worst. You'd also be lucky if train goes more than 3 times a day or if trains go more than just capital to 2nd biggest city. Driving car in these countries is bareable. Also, population density makes it not feasible to connect two cities with a population around or lower than 20k with each other.

Source: Latvian who moved to Germany.

Ironically the Acela in the northeast corridor of the USA does have a bar car where you can buy and drink wine / beer. It is the commute for lots of people, it was Biden's commute when he was a senator.

The "cars mean freedom" meme of the past few generations needs to die so bad. Cars are conformity.

Cars are consumerist. Cars are alienating. Cars kill cities. Cars fucking suck. Electric cars fucking suck too.

I'm not denying some people need one, but when I'm driving a car it's only because I'm out of all the better options.

PS I'm sorry if you reading this like cars, I also like some bad things. But that doesn't make them not bad.

I posted this exact screenshot on the fuckcars sub on Reddit. I was hoping there would be people here who understood the spirit and point of the post instead of squabbling over traffic and trains and how often people are in traffic and whether people take trains through the Alps or not.

I'm sorely disappointed.

Funny cause its true

I don't understand why it's an either/or thing. I'd listen to audiobooks whether I'm in the car, or on a train. Even on a train, I've got hours to kill.

Yesterday I heard someone criticize a book as something to be listened to "while folding laundry," as if that's some crack against the book. What's wrong with listening to an audiobook while doing chores? It makes the chores go by quickly.