• Here’s the thing: I live in a mid sized city in Brazil. As in America, Brazil is very car centric (thanks, Kubitschek). But there’s no trains. The capital city of my state has a single urban train line, and I think it’s the only in the whole state, that’s as big as France.

    Your options here are:

    • use a car and endure the traffic;
    • get a poor planned, crowded and falling apart bus, and endure the traffic, because they rarely have exclusive lanes;
    • get a motorcycle, so you can split lanes and get through the traffic, but risking your life and not being able to carry more than one (adult) person and a handful of small items;
    • or use a bicycle in this very hilly and mountainous place, with close to no infrastructure to make it less risky.

    I chose to use a motorcycle (although I couldn’t afford one yet because we’re poor), but I understand that for anyone with a family, owning a car is not a choice, it’s a necessity (and it’s a very expensive one)