Public Transportation- You Use It?

[Twitch]

Just wondering these days if anyone truly uses it on a regular basis like to get to work. Some cities lend themselves to its ease like NYC while others like L.A. do not.

We see so much public transportation depicted in old movies but it was at a time when economics disallowed the ubiquitous ownership of autos. I grew up in St. Louis where busses ran on north-south and east-west grid lines. You rode west as far as you needed, bought a transfer then took a northbound bus close to your destination. In Southern California the routes are like those spasdic monkeys twisting about the avenues in all directions so that one always needs a route map and scedule.

Does anyone actually use taxis on any sort of regular basis? Busses? How about light rail- subway or above ground? I'm guessing most of us use autos for the bulk of our transport.[huh]

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I take the bus to work and home again every day. It helps being in a college town where the university (actually our student fees) pay for free bus rides for students, staff and faculty. If i had to pay, i'd walk the two miles and back (never learned to drive and don't intend to). It's very efficient, and i'm told by the natives that it is remarkable for a non-massive US city to have such good public transportation.

bk

 

[airfrogusmc]

Yeah but not as much as I could if I didn't have thousands of $$$ and lots of equipment I take to jobs. But Chicago and the close suburbs have a very good public trans system. I'm a half block from the Blue Line and can be in the heart of the loop in 20 minutes on a bad day.

 

[Lincsong]

I have a company vehicle and it's parked on the street. So I walk out the door and am at work.lol

 

[Viola]

I use it. The bus and the subway primarily, though Philadelphia has a trolley and elevated train and regional rail as well.

The bus very convenient to my house, and the drivers are pleasant people. The expense is difficult, one of the highest in the nation, and safety at night is not flawless but a lot of that is the area around the stops as much as the stops and the lines themselves.

However, if the bus goes out (as it is wont to do) the subway leaves me a good four miles from my house, which having walked in the snow is NO FUN. If I know enough in advance I can work out a more labyrinthian bus route home, but sometimes the good ol' 28 just disappears with no warning at all, as if into the Bermuda Triangle. :rage:

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

If it was more convenient, I'd use it. I'm sure that if I lived in Manhattan, I'd take the subway everywhere.

I was without a car for a year or so when I first moved back to southern California about five years ago. Lots of rush, rush, rush to catch the bus and lots of wait, wait, wait for the connecting bus.

 

[Feraud]

I live in Queens and work in Manhattan so I use public transportation every day. The upside is it is cheap, effective, and very easy to get from one borough to another quickly. The downside is congestion at certain times and having to deal with a general population that does not know the meaning of common sense.
Life is a trade off that way.

 

[Sefton]

Yes, everyday except Sundays when I have to be at work extra early I borrow my wife's car. The train station is less than a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The station is over 100 years old and has a great feel (those in Fedoras will feel most comfortable! ). This train gets me to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes where I transfer to the local light rail. That usually takes about 40 mintues to get me to my last stop and then it's a 15 minute walk to work. You really don't need a car if you live or work in San Francisco as there are extensive public transit choices and the city itself isn't that large. The bad part is that the local bus and train service-Muni (Municipal Transportation System or some such)-is notoriously slow and mismanaged. I can often walk to my destination faster than if I take Muni!

 

[Harp]

CTA

I started taking Chicago Transit Authority buses during high school;
then later opted the subway Blue Line while attending the University
of Illinois-Chicago. Still later, I hopped the Blue Line to jobs in Maywood,
Illinois and Chicago's O'Hare Airport. I currently live downtown, near
a Red Line subway stop, and can access the Clark&Lake Street hub within
minutes, and transfer trains free. I enjoy Chicago's public transit system,
its live musical entertainment (ranging from blues/jazz to rap to classical
violin), and its overall convenience.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

I live in Boston. The "T" (the train system here in the city) is right outside my front door. It is great, and when I worked in an area that it served, I took it everyday. When I go out at night I'll either take the "T" or a taxi cab. It's just so much easier than trying to drive and find parking (which is outrageously expensive) anywhere downtown. When I didn't own a parking space in a garage, it was my steady form of transportation. For I live on Commonwealth Ave, and parking is at a minimum. Now I own 2 indoor garage spaces, so going out in the evening and taking the car is a lot less stressful. Before, if I took the car out after 5pm I'd have to drive around, sometimes for hours, in hunt for a space.
Public transportation in Boston is OK, but it doesn't run very late. If you plan on being out past 12:30, expect to take a cab ride home. There is a new system that they are testing out in which busses run until 3AM, but they only go to a small amount of areas in the city. Since they are located in the areas of populated night clubs, often they are packed to the max with a lot of drunk people. I'd much rather pay for a cab in that case. Luckily most of the places I go to are either just outside the city and provide parking or are within walking distance to my place.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

Yes, everyday except Sundays when I have to be at work extra early I borrow my wife's car. The train station is less than a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The station is over 100 years old and has a great feel (those in Fedoras will feel most comfortable! ). This train gets me to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes where I transfer to the local light rail. That usually takes about 40 mintues to get me to my last stop and then it's a 15 minute walk to work. You really don't need a car if you live or work in San Francisco as there are extensive public transit choices and the city itself isn't that large. The bad part is that the local bus and train service-Muni (Municipal Transportation System or some such)-is notoriously slow and mismanaged. I can often walk to my destination faster than if I take Muni!

fftopic: Completely off topic, but I love Burlingame. It's where the PEZ factory and museum are. I drove by it last year during a drive from San Francisco to LA, but Hemingway said we didn't have enough time to stop

 

[carebear]

Nope, since we had the space we're laid out like a Southwestern city, all suburb. And we're a new city so we grew up auto-centric.

That, coupled with the climate, pretty makes public transit the resort of those who can't drive. Waiting in an exposed bus stop for 15 minutes to an hour for a bus in the cold and storm isn't realistic. Making all the stops heated shelters or increasing the route times is economically impossible. Which lowers ridership, which lowers the income of the bus system, which keeps the service minimalized. [huh]

There's been talk for years of light rail to get folks from the outer suburbs to the downtown and midtown core, but in winter it isn't realistic to walk for blocks from your home to a station and then again from a station to your workplace. We're gradually improving downtown to connect businesses with skywalks and such so one can travel indoors, but for now it's cars.

I rode the bus a bit one summer years ago when my fiancee was sharing my car but that ended prior to winter starting up.

I enjoyed using public transit in Seattle during college and visiting my sister a few years back in San Fran showed me what a good system can do given the right setting. New York's subway (my sis and bro-in-law now live in Queens and they work in Manhattan) is quite a thing. They are moving onto the island soon which will cut their trip times enormously. It will be interesting to see how it works in winter, we're going down for Christmas.

 

[Sefton]

fftopic: Completely off topic, but I love Burlingame. It's where the PEZ factory and museum are. I drove by it last year during a drive from San Francisco to LA, but Hemingway said we didn't have enough time to stop

If you pass through again drop me a line in advance so we can get together. I haven't been living in Burlingame for too long myself. There are some good antique shops here to explore and an old car club in town. ......

I was in Boston for a few years and remember the trains very much. I used to
hop on the Green Line to get to work. I haven't been there since 89 though. Great city!

 

[Zach R.]

I take the bus to work and home again every day. It helps being in a college town where the university (actually our student fees) pay for free bus rides for students, staff and faculty. If i had to pay, i'd walk the two miles and back (never learned to drive and don't intend to). It's very efficient, and i'm told by the natives that it is remarkable for a non-massive US city to have such good public transportation.

bk

I live in a college town as well, and we have a similar transportation system. I only live a 10 minute walk from my classes though, and right on Franklin street so I end up walking most of the time.

Unless its late at night and I'm stuck on South Campus, in which case I take the P2P, which runs from 7 at night to 3 in the morning and circles campus, and is almost always full of drunks starting around 11--imagine that.

Where my home is though, its very rural and you HAVE to have a car or you'll be stuck wherever you are.

 

[Tomasso]

never learned to drive and don't intend to

Press

 

[Jay]

Thanks to my schools "Safe Ride" program, I'm in a cab quite often now. It's pretty cool, you know, cause it's free.

 

[McPeppers]

My response for when i'm in Florida - "We have Public Transportation?"

My response when I'm in New Orleans - "I used to use the streetcar but Katrina blew up the St. Charles Line so now I just drive again"

 

[carebear]

Thanks to my schools "Safe Ride" program, I'm in a cab quite often now. It's pretty cool, you know, cause it's free.

Free?

I'm pretty sure someone (in the end your tuition) is paying for it.

TANSTAAFL

 

[Jay]

Considering the cost for tuition at Embry-Riddle I guess you're right. However, the money doesn't come directly from my pocket, so I like it. Trouble is, it's only good for rides back to the dorm, in case we're too drunk to drive or we're in a bad situation. However, I'm told if you offer the cabbie a milkshake or a hamburger, they will detour to Steak'n'Shake or any other late-nite restaurant.

 

[carebear]

Considering the cost for tuition at Embry-Riddle I guess you're right. However, the money doesn't come directly from my pocket, so I like it. Trouble is, it's only good for rides back to the dorm, in case we're too drunk to drive or we're in a bad situation. However, I'm told if you offer the cabbie a milkshake or a hamburger, they will detour to Steak'n'Shake or any other late-nite restaurant.

This is what happens when prices are fixed, you get a black market Steak'n'Shake syndicate.