Efficient Isn’t the Same as Free

Some mornings on the subway, jammed in with the city, staring at nothing while the tunnel slides past, I want a car. It’s an unfashionable thing to want when you live somewhere with working public transit and friends who take the same lines and give you a certain look when you mention it. You don’t need it, they say. Everything’s connected. Technically, they’re right.

But there’s something about moving through a city on your own terms—no schedules, no strangers breathing on you, the radio on whatever you want—that doesn’t go away just because the transit map is comprehensive. The city is efficient. That is not the same as free.