Issues with Public transportation

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I currently live on my own, work part-time, and also go to school. I currently work 30 minutes North of where I reside and since I do not drive, I am required to rely on public transportation. In January 2010, the local route that went up to this location was cut from the county's budget due to short-falls which left me to rely on Paratransit or a mobility service to get to and from work. I am required to contact the Paratransit asseveration line every day or the Friday before the next Monday if I am going to use them. I sometimes get sidetracked and forget to call them and then end up having to call into work.

However, a few of the co-workers are getting angry with me for doing this and feeling that I could look into other alternatives such as contacting a friend or my aunt to drive me all the way up there. However, I don't think it's fair for them to drive me one way, drive all the way back, and then turn around to drive home and then pick me up again. The other reason that I cannot go to work without Paratransit is because the express busses that I want don't go round trip and only run one way at specific times during the day.

Does anyone else have this problem too?

Could you put a system of reminders in place so you don't forget to call?
Could you pay petrol money of the same amount as the public transport fare to your friend or family so you don't feel so bad about asking for their help with you transportation?
Is there anyone at your work who lives near you who you would feel comfortable to get a ride with?
Is there another bus-stop/train station etc within walking distance that you could use?

I did contact a ride share service and post an add where I can contact a few other residents who live in my area and have them as a back up but I have not heard anything.

I've only used the local bus system once since I moved to my current address. The one trip was a trip to the DMV for a renewal on a mandatory ID card. The DMV only took about 10 minutes, but the round trip took about 8 hours, including about 7 miles walking. If I used Paratransit, I would have paid a couple dollars more, walked about two miles less, and the round trip would then have taken about 11 hours. The bus schedules are very bad, and the buses go only to very inconvenient stops.

My family members able to drive are far away, and neighbors have their own problems and don't want to, or can't, play Pollyanna. To top this off, my local clinic called the police on me for my endangering myself by walking during hot weather, then a doctor reported me to Adult Protective Services for walking a mile to her clinic in a light rain, while she wanted me then to take an ambulance to a distant ER over a painless migraine, which I refused (mainly because they don't provide return trips, and ER usually just tells me to see my clinic doctor instead of pestering them (once they did tell me I had three hours to live without emergency neurosurgery, which required another long ambulance trip to a different county)).

I can always ask for more transportation services, but the previous answers have always been no. I'm always told that I should have thought of something else before I decided I needed to go anywhere that walking won't safely get me there.

Tadzio

Transportation is a hard one. Bus schedules rarely make sense, ie they are often very inconvenient. I am able to take a bus into a nearby city to grocery shop, but many other locations I can't get to. I do pay a woman to drive me to some dr's appts. I found her indirectly through Craigslist. Most of the cities I have lived in, I have been able to find someone who I pay $10-20/an hour to drive me places. 30 min is a ways, though. Paratransit sounds your best bet. Good luck.

This is the problem. You don't lack transportation. You lack a level of responsibility.

I realize that sounds harsh. Everyone forgets to do something every now and then but when it starts to happen multiple times, and you don't have some form of dementia to account for it, then it really comes down to you being irresponsible. There are multiple things you can do to help you to remember to call. For example, you can place notes around the house. You can set your alarm clock and put a note on it. You can set a reminder on your cell phone if you have one. You may even be able to have Google send you a reminder.