Are You Good With Public Transit?

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I use it all the time to get almost everywhere, I have to take 2 buses to get work everyday and then again on the way back. The transport where I live is really good all the buses are usually spot on time and are new, clean and never over crowded. Price is getting a little stupid now though, I'm paying £65 every 4 weeks for my travel card (I was only paying £40 when I started my current job 2 years ago).

I've pretty much never used public transportation, so the few times that I have to I'm not great with it. I think it's just practice, though, the problems aren't inherent.

I've been using buses for over 3 years now, and I have also been doing driving lessons. I've passed my tests now, but still haven't got myself a car because I enjoy getting the buses too much (buses are part of my special interests aswell). But it isn't just that - it may be easier to hop in a car and go where you want, but in a way it's easier to hop on a bus, especially if your planned destination is on an easy route. I work about 10 miles away from home, and there's a bus service that goes right through my town and straight to where I work, and it comes once every hour. Also it's a good service - it's been coming on time for the last 5 months (since it changed companies) and it's pretty good. (Except for winter in the snow).

Also, when you are on a bus, you don't have the responsibility of the bus. If the bus breaks down, you don't have to do anything - just sit there and hope help will come soon for the driver, whereas if I was in a car and it conked out in the middle of nowhere, I'll be in a hell of a state. Also, I get a free buspass, and can go anywhere in the UK without spending a penny, whereas if I had a car my insurence will be sky high, and also I'd have to pay for petrol and parking and MOT and all stuff like that.

Also on the bus I get to know other regular passengers, and I've even got talking to another girl and we've become friends. I think getting the bus is great. And all the bus-drivers are really cute too - can't resist seeing them!

Whether I like the public transit on not depends very much on the reliability... when they don't come on time, I simply hate it.

Which means that it is impossible to like the Deutsche Bahn (which runs the trains in Germany). Seriously, I had a foreign friend over for a little a week at my home, and we used the trains a lot. Almost every time we used them they were late. And if they weren't late they were arriving at a different platform...

The busses, being different in every toen, are not as bad... at least not that bad in other towns than my home town.

In my home town I'm boycotting the bus (or trying to do so) and last semester almost every time decided to walk, which means that I walk for ca. an hour... uphill. But I like to walk anyway, so it wasn't all that bad.
The reason for this is that the busses are often late, that the town is often stuffed with traffic jams, the timetables are thoughtless (departure at: 21:00, 21:04, 22:00, 22:04... -.-), the busses don't have a student ticket despite the town's university, the other tarifs are unpractical and generally the tickets are expensive.
I only use them if really necessary.

But if the public transit system works, it can be really great. I was a few times in Berlin, and really enjoyed it. With bus and subway you can about anywhere in little time. Just take a book.

I don't mind the people that much and just look out of the window. What I hate is when people start talking to me (usually some old woman), which I usually simply ignore, if possible. Impolite, okay, but you can't expect that every person will be glad to talk to you...

I like public transit. I can drive ok, but I like that I can let my attention wander and not crash, like in a car. It's more productive to read or do work while taking transit, or simply look out the window.

Public transit can also be efficient when done right. I'm in London right now, and I can accurately time travel time because service is so frequent and reliable. I know Londoners do not share my views, but their system is way better than anything found in the U.S.

Good lord no! The problem with the mass transit in my city is that it is terribly unreliable as there are some breakdown of the vehicles and they are rarely on time. I also prefer to drive because I have a relative solitude between myself and the outside world, despite there being a clear window of separation between us. It is bad enough that I feel really uncomfortable around strangers in an enclosed area, but it is also a clear fact that the unscrupulous members of this city tend to board and bother fellow passengers in the mass transit system.

i prefer to drive.
it really wasn't that hard to learn.

homeless people and poor people around here take the bus alot
so it tends to smell bad if the bus gets crowded. I have to take the bus to college every day because i don't have a car currently. i HATE it.
i wish i had a regular job so i could buy my own car/insurance/gas/etc.

I am fine with using public transport if I have planned beforehand. There is usually no choice between choosing to drive or use a bus or train as public transport sometimes does not go to your desired location or its a hassle such as getting multiple buses and trains or the bus service stops at a ridiculously early time. Life is usually more limited and diffucult to people without a car.

I think I would prefer public transit, but I don't live in a town where there is much of it, that is affordable.

I kind of with i lived somewhere in NY or something, where taxis were all over the place, or buses. I like riding in buses for some reason. In an odd way I didn't mind getting home late when I was in school, because I found riding the bus kind of relaxing. I missed by stop a lot because I fell asleep. Which is kind of odd because of all the rowdy kids yelling and such.

Yet another "I just thought I was odd" trait that suddenly all makes sense!

When I was at senior school, we had to get on the school bus there and back. I very quickly realised that I struggled a lot and if I was by myself always had to stand at the front, next to the driver otherwise I couldn't cope with it. If I had a group of friends with me, I could sit with them, but after several months, where the terror of getting on these over-crowded, noisy, smelly cattle-market style buses just got overwhelming, I started walking to the main bus-station/terminal in town (about a mile away) so I could get the "normal" public transport which had very few people on at that time of the morning. I was always late for school, but preferred that to getting on the school bus.

After school, I found that, if I mentally prepared myself, I could face public transport, but I would happily wait an extra hour or so to get a less-crowded bus if the first one looked too full. I would even say that I developed a phobia about it.

However, I've now moved to Leeds. Driving a car is a very expensive option (fuel, parking, wear and tear) and public transport is a lot more regular as well as convenient (ie. it runs to most places that I want to go). I am still not "happy" about it, but I've learnt to cope - usually by keeping my head down and reading, or entertaining random small children on the bus (OK some people see me interacting with their children as inappropriate, but if a game of eye-spy keeps them entertained and my mind occupied, I don't really care, some, on the other hand, are just glad the kids aren't screaming!). So I've kind of trained myself to focus on the fact that I'll be home soon and that it'll be all OK.

i dont have a choice i cant drive my attention span is way too short

I have a bad habit of over shooting my stop because I tend to daydream while in cars or even riding a bike.

I'm pretty good with public transportation. One of my primary interests is buses. Our buses usually run on time and are rarely more than five minutes late. I use it to get back and forth to the college every day. Our buses are fairly clean and the newer ones are painted in different colors.

My only issue with riding the bus is people who stare at you constantly. It does get very irritating.

But, our system has been cut in half in the past two years due to the economy crisis and the elimination of evening and weekend service was part of those cuts. Our fourth most popular route, which is the route that goes past my house, had its frequency reduced to once an hour. I can't believe how much the transit cuts had an impact on me and other people who are dependent on the bus to get around.

My mother and I have no vehicle, as my deceased grandmother's Chevrolet Cavalier stopped running in December of 2009, which means that both of us have to use the bus quite often.