When I taught in Orange County, I learned that the majority of my students had never boarded a train. Car-as-sole-means-of-transportation is so ingrained for many people in the country, and what such people usually don't understand that mass transit isn't simply a somewhat annoying substitute for car travel but that it can greatly transform your relationship with your surroundings and how you go about your life. Life is different, very different.
Anyway along these lines I find reading the articles about Charlotte's new light rail system highly entertaining. There's always a degree of incomprehension - just what is this train thing anyway? - in them. But the system appears to be popular.
