Denver isn’t great with public transport either. There’s at least a minimal light rail system and buses go pretty much everywhere, so that’s the good part, but the city is so sprawled out that unless your destination is a direct route you’re looking at an hour or more to exclusively use public transport. And that’s really the main city. Start getting out into the expanded metro area and there’s not many choices except for a handful of spur rail or bus lines.

It’s a lot more than many American cities, especially on paper, but in practice it’s pretty rough to use as a primary transport.

I’m not really answering that question as much as adding a recommendation for another author, so hopefully you don’t mind.

Check out the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Hugo and nebula awards were awarded for novels in the trilogy, and I tore right through them. She has a short story collection that I read first and it really hooked me in. Such a wide variety of worlds, peoples, and consciousness she’s able to bring to life. The title doesn’t make you think “sci Fi shorts” but I assure you it is, and fantastic! “How Long 'til Black Future Month?”

It’s probably NaCl