Anecdotally, in Houston at least, it does seem true that people come back from travel abroad and talk about walking around, using public transit, and if renting a car, only for drives through the countryside or a particular tour. And then complain about having to resume a tedious commute. It’s almost a cliche, like study abroad students coming home with new affectations.
Or, if they went to certain other places, complaining about how terrifying the traffic was, like “you wouldn’t believe these roundabouts, there were no signs, mopeds everywhere, it was lawless! traffic worse than here!”
To some maybe the connection is more obvious than to others, but as they say, you can lead the horse to public transportation but you can’t make it vote for people who support allocating resources for it.
Or, if they went to certain other places, complaining about how terrifying the traffic was, like “you wouldn’t believe these roundabouts, there were no signs, mopeds everywhere, it was lawless! traffic worse than here!”
To some maybe the connection is more obvious than to others, but as they say, you can lead the horse to public transportation but you can’t make it vote for people who support allocating resources for it.