Sometimes this is the most charitable interpretation.

> if you're a group of 2-5 adults

even a taxi or ride share may come out cheaper than public transit too.

Part of it is public transit like trains and trams have to maintain their own infrastructure.

Not sure about buses, I would guess these are way cheaper to operate. In many parts of the world they are cheap, private and profitable, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/Detroit/comments/1l5pt2a/detroit_th...

I've found this to be the case nearly everywhere I've travelled, regardless of the kind of vehicle.

The only exceptions are the places with free public transit and expensive parking, like Luxembourg.

Like many households, they probably have a car already for other reasons.

To me this is big reason why transit has to be basically free to attract riders. It has to compete with marginal cost per kilometer of private car use, not total cost.

Not GP and I don't know anything about this either, but I found this:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

Anecdotally, I used to take the Greyhound a lot and everyone on them is either a student or somewhat homeless, e.g. they just lined up another friend's couch to sleep on for a little while.