What about the fact you cannot do anything useful other than podcasts / music while driving? Btw your point sounds to me just that public transport needs to get better, not that in general is not a good idea to move towards this model.

> What about the fact you cannot do anything useful other than podcasts / music while driving?

To be fair I rarely was doing anything useful on my 40 min train commute either :) Mostly reading Hacked News on my phone. Now I'm at least looking into the distance, taking some strain from the eyes.

I totally agree that public transport has to get better, it's just that there always has to be a mixture of transportation options.

> Reduced commute time, increased comfort and reliability.

Can the reason for these be that many other people use public transport instead and thus the roads are way less busier?

I'm sure that's a big contributor. I myself relied solely on public transport for years we lived close to the subway. Now that we moved outside of the city driving makes more sense.