Really really good is a bit of a stretch and depends on where you live. There are some areas with zero (I mean nothing, not even buses) public transit. The free train sounds great but it often runs only every 30 mins and sometimes not at all on the weekends due to track work. I live in New Dorp which has a multitude of transit options, but recently I needed to take the bus to Mariner’s harbor and it took 1.5 hours. If I drove it would have been 20 minutes top. Ironically I didn’t drive that day because I was picking my car up from a repair shop there.

I do use local transit here but only when it happens to work out for the situation.

For off the boro transit, it also depends on the situation, but try catching a Manhattan bound SIM1 in the evening during rush hour. Literally 1hr+ wait times.