I spend time in England and France,.so can answer for mostly one and a little of the second.

For England, the best transportation is usually in the south east, mainly London. In most of the UK, public transport can take you there, but it's both prohibitively expensive, unreliable for anything time-sensitive, or will take longer than just driving. In Bristol, we joke about how terrible our public transport is by talking about cycling. We cycle more than all cities bar London. Pair that with the fact that our roads are heavily congested AND we're a mostly hilly city shows that the only option that won't result in being late for work is cycling...

In (southern) France, it's quite similar. The price is much better, but the connectivity could be better. You'll also find that transport doesn't deal with peak times as well as roads can.