Burger here, I’ve been living in Yurp for a while now but still haven’t made it to the UK. As a 'mercan I take it with a grain of salt when Euros tell me transit is “bad” anywhere, but I do hear its supposed to be “bad” outside of London.
Do you guys own cars? Is owning a car necessary to live where you are?
It’s generally not quite as good as many mainland European countries, but most UK cities are very walkable, and most are served by a railway station or at least a National Express bus. Some cities have fairly spotty public transport (e.g. the buses stopping around 6pm which is no good if you’re not staying in the city and want to get there for a night out). Unfortunately the public transport tends to be expensive compared to mainland Europe. For instance I was helping putting an event on in Bilbao last week, and did a week commuting in and out the city and it cost around 7 euros using the metro and trams for the whole week. In many British cities, you’ll spend that much per day for a similar travel pattern.