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Public Transportation |Pad Patter 5.3

bestcee

bestcee

In love with places I've never been to
Joined
Dec 18, 2013
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We enjoy the adventure of public transportation. When we go on vacation, we don't rent a car, but use the buses, trains, or our feet. We do use the occasional taxi if there's no other option. We also use it around the town we live when possible or practical. This weekend, I'm heading down to my mom's to scrap, and my son and I are taking the commuter rail. (Trials of a one car, grave working family :giggle)

So, I wondered, am I unique? Do you take public transportation? Or do you think I'm crazy for using public transportation on vacations :scared?
 
Hmmm.... We use public transportation when needed. Heading to the city, mostly train and subway. I used to use it daily on my commute, but since moving to NJ for work years ago, it's more for fun travels. Good thing my metro card doesn't expire, lol! When the boys get a little bigger, I'll head back to work in the city, then I'll use it everyday again.

We can walk to the train from our house, which can then take us anywhere - airport, city, subways, etc. When I travel to family or weekend adventures, we usually bring our car. Most people in our area use the public transportation for commuting. We don't usually use it on vacation. Usually, when away far, there is either a car available to us, we will rent a car, or there is no need to have transportation. Plus, if this is a big vacation, many of the off site sun stuff includes transportation to and from.
 
I have really bad luck with public transportation, and taking it usually freaks me out.

For awhile, I worked in Seattle and went to school after work. We only had one car, so Vince would take it home to pick up/take care of Jessica when she was little. I'd have to take a bus home, which took nearly two hours, and then it would drop me at the last stop (at midnight) and I'd have to get a taxi for the last several miles. Totally creepy even though back then I was young and naive.

When we went to Paris, we took the train and got lost (it isn't as easy as in Barcelona or London). We also had plans canceled because of a train strike and trouble with our hop-on/hop-off bus passes. Our connecting flight home was canceled and we were stranded and had to stay in the airport overnight, etc. When I went to Italy, we had problem with our flight, were dumped in Naples without our luggage, ended up in the middle of a train strike, and when the train finally ran it would only get us to Rome. We stayed there for two nights until the strike ended and then tried to get another train, but we fell asleep and missed our stop (ending up in Milan and getting fined for not having the right ticket) and had to backtrack to Venice. You don't want to travel with me. LOL.

That being said, when I worked at one company in downtown Tacoma, I had to park and take the link rail every day (without issue), and for awhile I took the commuter train and the link rail without problems. :)
 
DH took the bus to work when we lived in Houston. We had one car and he didn't want to drive in the city. He's such a country boy lol. There isn't really any public transpo here--a few buses but I'd have to drive to get to their stops and, mile-wise, by then I'm halfway to my destination, so why not just drive the whole way (cuz the bus takes an hour to get where I can go in maybe 20 min). I'd take the Metro in Houston to get into Downtown. I didn't want to have to park down there. But it wasn't fun. One time, there was a scuffle. Long story short, I just don't like wondering if the people around me are going to fight each other, and in Texas, ya gotta worry about who's carrying what on their person. :backing

Here, there isn't a train through town or taxis or Uber. I've ridden the subway/taxis in NYC and the Tube in London (and I've been in their famed black cabs!). And I've been in taxis and buses in Mexico. But my favorite type of vacay in Mexico is an all-inclusive resort and I don't have to leave the property, which means no transpo of any kind. :) But yeah, in a big city (NYC, London) I take it cuz what the heck else can I do? I don't want to drive in those big cities lol.)
 
The places we frequently travel to don't have a lot of public transportation options....and with 5 kids it's just easier and probably cheaper to take our van.

We have used the Marta in Atlanta, and when we travel to China it's obviously all public transportation.
We have stayed downtown in a few cities and we'll typically walk to wherever we want to go.
 
When we lived in a college town, the university bus system was great. Lots of people used it, not just students.

I do not use public transportation in my town. I see buses around, but I think it would take so much time, it just makes more sense to drive. I'm mostly just at home and take quick small trips around town as needed.

When we visited San Francisco last summer, we used a mix of taxis and public transportation to get around. We figured that parking was going to cost so much anyway, might as well just let our car stay parked at the hotel. We used an app called City Mapper (I think), and it was amazing. You would tell it where you wanted to go, and it would give you several very specific ways to get there, like "walk 2 blocks to this bus stop, and then take XYZ bus." It even tracked us on the bus and gave a warning before you needed to get off.
 
We try to use public transportation whenever we can, except for when we're in Los Angeles.

Our favorite place to use the transportation was in San Francisco. We loved riding the trolley cars (and the cable cars, too). The trolley cars are great because they are literally a living history museum. The majority of them are restored vintage cars, and they're great fun to ride.

We'll be heading to Scandinavia this summer and have plans to use public transportation - and our feet!
 
I have lived in Chicago approximately 20 years (off and on) and have never once driven in the city. Now that the kids are older and get themselves around the city, my world is pretty small, so I don't spend as much time on the CTA as I used to. I walk most everywhere I need to go during the week. I uber if I'm going anywhere too far. I do take the bus or el occasionally depending on where I'm going.

My kids use it much more. Alex navigates to school and back on the CTA and on whenever he meets up with friends. Clara started taking the bus to dance straight from school this year. She'll be taking it more next year when she goes to high school.

My husband is our chauffeur when we need the car :-)
 
I can't drive so public transport is all I use. Some days I'm on 5-7 buses or trains so its just become my way of life. I also use taxis but thats mainly cause there is no buses in my neighbourhood yet (there will be from October)
 
I used to use the public transportation, but now I never do that anymore.
Riding the boys through different zones, it just grew like this...
 
When we travel outside the US, we use public transportaion in any area we can though we usually rent a car if we're going to more than one city per trip. However, that restricts the place we rent to one with parking. :( I'm wondering if our days of driving in Italy are over as my husband my be over the age limit to rent a car. In Britain, only public transportation. He was not good with driving on the other side of the road and it's been way too many years for me to try.

We've often rented cars in the US simply because public transportation options aren't that available in some areas. Fortunately, we prefer large cities so now with Uber etc we don't even need transportation from an airport.

But here in my own home town area, cars are pretty necessary. We have city buses that are not terribly reliable and the bus to DC only runs on commuter hours. If you want to leave DC after 6pm, forget it. I used to drive to Metro station (20miles) and take that into DC but now Metro has had so many issues, I've rarely done that for a while. Getting a parking space after 9am is pretty dicey too. Fortunately, my car is diesel and gets great mileage. Now all I have to do is get the various parking apps for the many that are in use in DC. I've never taken the time to learn them all so my ability to drive AND park is very limited. It's easier to take public transportation to Baltimore but I mainly go to the Sunday Farmers' Market and I 'need' my car to take home all my loot - edible loot!
 
Public transportation???? What's that??? If you were to ask anyone that question where I live, that is probably the answer you would get!! I live in the boonies, and I mean the BOONIES!! No car, you walk or ride a bicycle. Before I bought my car six years ago, I traveled around town on my bike.
 
We have very little in the way of public transportation around here and nothing that would get me to work. Driving around here is not really a big deal. I complain about our traffic sometimes, but really it's nothing compared to other places. It might take me 15 min to get to the other side of town if traffic is really bad. We drive when we travel as well. The only time I used taxis was when I flew to San Antonio for my son's AIT Graduation. Other times, I have tried to stay within walking distance of things I wanted to see.
 
@NancyP Are you a Yooper? We have friends that are moving back to Michigan, Traverse City, in retirement. He says that's not the Upper Peninsula but it looks darn north to me!
 
Oh heavens NO!!! I am not a Yooper. I am a Troll. I live below the bridge. Alpena is about 2 hours below the bridge. Traverse City is directly across the state from me on Lake Michigan. I am on Lake Huron. And yes, we are still darn North!!!
 
I don't really like busses, but I take the train to work everyday, and metro (subway) around the city when I'm downtown. I have a yearly pass which covers all public transportation from my zone.

When we travel, it just depends on where we are. Public busses and trains in Mexico are quite the experience though.

Paris metro and trains are laid out very similar to Montreal so it's easy to navigate.

Berlin not so much. They post the next stop rather than the end of the line stop so it's hard to actually know which direction you are going without a map.

London Underground is a tangled mess, you can never seem to get where your going by the route you planned.

I didn't realize how many Subways I've taken til I started writing this.....

Chicago L is ok - in the middle I'd say.. New York - pretty decrepit but gets you there. Atlanta, clean and fast.
 
Most of the time when we travel we are driving, so we have a car. But whenever we go to chicago it is almost all public transporatation. We'll take the electric train in from Michigan City and then use our feet, taxis or the "L" to get further distances. I have a friend that lives pretty far North of the city so we'll usually meet downtown for dinner, a show or shopping and then take the L back to her place. I kinda like taking trains or buses places. Makes life interesting! :giggle
 
I wish the Fredericksburg, VA area had public transportation. There is a little bus with very limited routes. I drive everywhere.

However, I'd like to move downtown and then I could walk almost everywhere. It's a very walkable town.
 
No, not at home. You'd think a city the size of Pittsburgh would have a great mass transit system, but it really stinks. You can't get from here to there easily.

We rode the Metro when we were in DC a few years ago. Once we learned how it works, it was wonderful. Our car stayed in the hotel parking lot all weekend.

I guess I'll be riding it again when I go to London this summer. Wish me luck!
 
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