Respect to those folks. A miserable ride is often rewarding because it’s one of those lows that is eminently temporary and gives you an appreciation for the highs, especially if you are dressed appropriately so as not to catch a cold or some such. Kind of like shoveling snow for that sweet sweet mug of hot chocolate on the sofa afterwards. But yeah, also a good city will provide alternative options for its citizens, trains, buses, rideshare even. If a 30 mile bike ride is the only alternative to driving from place A to place B, your government doesn’t want you to have any kind of freedom to choose how you get from place A to place B, if there are no affordable housing options or good job opportunities that change that equation, your government is working on behalf of the big car manufacturers and dealers to keep you enslaved in debt to them, which is pretty fucked up
There was no amount of flattery that was going to get Trump to oppose his Russian masters. The best thing Zelenskyy can do is make it clear that Trump is foolish for not backing Ukraine. It wins him points with European leaders who get to choose between backing Zelenskyy or following a fool and it increases the odds of getting a more favorable outlook from the US in 2-4 years as political tides shift (assuming the US continues holding a semblance of fair elections in the next 2-4 years)