How is the public transportation (if applicable) in your hometown?

[GRLMGC]

I live in LA. The very far end of the San Fernando Valley to be exact. My mother works in South LA but there is a commuter bus that takes her Downtown and then she takes another bus to her place of work. She likes it and saves a bunch in gas. It's pretty easy to get Downtown using public transport because there are a few options such as the Metrolink (commuter rail) and other bus services. However, I cannot really think of a way of getting to West LA. The only way is to take an MTA bus which would probably take about three hours. I'm not sure why this is exactly and I can only speculate that part of the reason is that residents of that area are probably not too keen on having trains going there. That's the situation here. What is situation where you live? Is it possible to get around without a car? Is there not even a bus line that services the area? I know everyone has a very different situation and is affected differently by horrible gas prices.

[PDJane]

1. I live downtown in Toronto.

There are buses and subways and LRT and GO trains, and they manage to move people fairly efficiently.

And yes, I can get all over the city, pretty much, without any hassle. There are few gaps, but I would still prefer to live downtown.

[Rosemary2205]

2. South of Atlanta

I can drive my lift van to my job in Atlanta in 40 minutes/17 miles - or - I can drive 6 miles to the nearest bus in my area 3 hours prior to having to be at work, pray fervently that a lift bus will come sometime in the next 24 hrs, ride that bus for 40 minutes to go a mere 6 miles to the Marta train station, ride the Marta train to the nearest station to my job. Wait 40-90 min for a lift bus that will take me 2 miles from my job and hope to heck it's not bad whether and the battery in my chair holds out while I wheelie out in traffic of a 5 lane 60mph average speed road that does not have any sidewalks.

Needless to say, I drive.

Edit to add, the places I can afford to move closer to the city are not safe for a disabled person, have no services, shopping or anything else. Where I actually live is a great place, with everything I need within 2 miles and sidewalks here and there. The only thing missing is an employer who'll pay me enough to basically survive.

[robinlynne]

3. That is not the reason. hi. I live in west la, and we would love to have trains!

Whenever I'm sans car for whatever reason it takes hours to go anywhere. Unless you get a great book and just don't care about the time, it is really hgard to get around by bus, unless, as you said, you live and work in a bus line.

there is one good public service. you can go online and find out exactly what busses to take from anywhere to anywhere. I can't wait for electric cars!!!!

[GRLMGC]

6. No kidding

I don't even like driving but a three hour bus trip to go twenty miles is not particularly feasible.

I'm sure a lot of West LA residents would love to forgo the torturous commutes. I guess I just got the idea from an article I read about the Red Line a long time ago. It was supposed to originally go to Santa Monica but there was a lot of protests from some residents of the Westside along with a host of other issues that prevented that from happening.

[kestrel91316]

30. We are better off here in the Valley than the folks on the West Side.

At least we have the Orange Line and the Red Line.........and the trains if you want to drive to Van Nuys (hair-standing-on-end scary) or up to Chatsworth (far).

[GRLMGC]

34. That we are.

It's just that its really easy to find a way to get Downtown but there are very few options in getting to the Westside if you work there.

[robinlynne]

46. glad to know there are DUers near by!

[guitar man]

4. woefully inadequeate

not enough bus routes, they shut down at night and no trains. Piss poor at best :(

[Speck Tater]

5. Our bus routes are ridiculous.

All routes fan out like spokes of a wheel from a single downtown bus station. If, for example, I wanted to get to the mall 6 miles southeast of me, I would have to ride a bus 12 miles south to downtown, wait half an hour at the downtown station, then get on another bus and go back 12 miles northeast. The only way to get from point A to point B is to go from point A to the downtown station, wait a long time at the downtown station, and then go from the downtown station to point B. It's very inefficient, and takes way too long to get anywhere.

What makes it worse is that I live in a rural area, well outside the city limits, and there are two buses in the morning, and two buses in the afternoon. The rest of the day and evening there is no bus service at all to my neighborhood.

I fondly remember the bus service in the San Fernando Valley when I was in high school. You could get from anywhere to anywhere in pretty much a pair of straight, perpendicular lines. Go east/west to the street you want, then go north/south to the address you want. Badda-bing, badda-boom. One transfer, and no wasted motions.

I understand the problem, we have several rivers going through town and a very limited number of bridges, but even so, there ought to be a better way to design bus routes. Somebody should write a computer program to optimize them.

[treestar]

52. This is the way in my area also

And one needs a car to get to the bus stop. There are "park-n-ride" lots.

It is only worth it if you destination is downtown.

[Hydra]

7. No accesss to where I work

Small town commute to tourist town. 40 miles round trip per day. Median house price in the tourist town = $650,000.

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Tucson AZ

We have busses but their pretty worthless.

The cleaning lady at a car lot I worked at had to ride the bus for 1 hour to get to work, 2 hours to get to her second job, and 1 hour to get home. 4 hours on the bus every day, and she lived and worked in city limits. 60 years old, no health insurance, didn't own a house, couldn't buy a car even with a cosigner. She was a hard working woman as well.

Decent public transportation would do wonders for this woman's life.

They don't have many routs and the pickups are miles apart.

[tularetom]

9. I live in bumfuck nowhere

There is no public transportation within 20 miles of me. There aren't enough people out here to justify it. If I were disabled I could have access to a county operated dial a ride system but other than that - nothing. Can't fault them - the road we live on is 17 miles from end to end and there are like 14 or 15 homes on it.

[jwirr]

10. I live in rural northern Minnesota and we have great mass transit

which provides daily service in many areas. In other areas it also provides one day a week service to the nearest towns. It is efficient, affordable and clean. We fight for it when the likes of Pawlenty try to cut it. More are using it to get to work now that gas is so high.

[sam sarrha]

11. when i was in el paso it took 7 hours to go from one side of town to the other

[JDPriestly]

12. I live near the Gold Line. I can reach specific destinations

easily. But, for instance, I have no idea how I would get to Glendale which is the neighboring area. I doubt that I could reach South Pasadena by public transportation although it is also a neighboring area.

Elderly people in our area complain that they have to walk to far to the bus stops and that no bus goes to certain grocery stores that they like. I called the councilman's office on behalf of these people, and was told that lines had been pulled due to lack of sufficient use. This is L.A.

You can get from here to specific points on the map, but you can't necessarily get from here (wherever you are) to where you need to go. That is what is known as "urban sprawl." As long as there is plenty of cheap gas, people are willing to withstand the loss of their time on the freeways, but now that gas is so expensive, we are noticing the lack of good public transportation.

[GRLMGC]

14. The only way I can think of getting to Glendale from the Gold Line

is to take the Metrolink which is pricey or to take a bus from Union Station (I couldn't tell you the number). The only stop in South Pasadena on the Gold Line is Mission, right?

[JDPriestly]

45. Actually, there is a stop about a mile from my house (not Mission) and one a bit further.

So if I'm not in a hurry, I can walk to my Gold Line stop and if I am in a hurry, I can take the car to the stop that is actually further away but in other respects more convenient. The Gold Line is great -- fast, clean, relaxing and for me as a senior citizen very cheap.

[lynnertic]

21. A friend lived in S. Pasadena when the Gold line was just started - the train stx was about 1 mi.

from his house. So we walked to the station and then it was a quick zip over to downtown Pasadena.

Then for grins we tried to get to Long Beach the next day. It was an interesting trip requiring a hike to the ocean and a cab ride back to the train line.

[kestrel91316]

36. A couple of years ago I did a little transit "adventure" just to try out the system.

In Encino, hopped on the Metro Red Line bus on Ventura.......got onto the Red Line subway in NHollywood >>> downtown >>>> switched to the Blue Line "subway" (an aboveground train, actually) and went down to Long Beach to see the Aquarium of the Pacific. It took two hours to get there but I brought a good book. Return trip was also two hours. My only complaint was getting around IN Long Beach, had to use a shuttle, nobody knew where the Blue Line stops were so I got kinda lost finding one to hop back on.....

I want to go to Old Pasadena on transit next, but I have been unable to find out the name of the Gold Line station IN Old Pasadena to get off at, lol. I know it will involve a transfer at Union Station, and at least two hours, but I like knowing that such a thing CAN BE DONE.

[GRLMGC]

37. I think its Memorial Park

You just walk a couple of blocks to Colorado Blvd.

[kestrel91316]

39. Do you happen to know what the major cross streets are for Old Pasadena?

I honestly haven't been there in over 15 years.......I want to go window shopping and have lunch some Sunday, and I DON'T want to drive it when there is transit right there.

[GRLMGC]

42. Let me think

Fair Oaks is a big one. It runs through the middle. I forget what the street name is where the shops begin. I do know that if you get off in Memorial Park, you walk two blocks south and it gets you towards the end of shopping district. If you go west, there are more shops. If you go east, you'll hit the Paseo Colorado outdoor mall.

Is the Orange Line close to you? You could take that, then the Red Line and just hop onto the Gold Line.

[kestrel91316]

44. Thanks, I think I can find it. When I get there I guess I could also ASK

people "Where actually IS Old Pasadena?". lol

I can walk to the Orange Line from my place about 3 blocks. I took transit into account when I moved here last fall because I could see what was coming down the pike with gas prices.

[RoseMead]

13. Rotten

We have buses that go nowhere and take forever to do it, and taxis that cost an arm and a leg. And that's it.

Several years ago, I was working for Amazon.com downtown. There was no good place to park near the office, and so I decided I would try to take the bus. I found out that it was literally impossible to take a bus from my house to work without having to leave more than an hour early. Coming home was just as bad. And this is in a town where it took me 15 minutes to drive from home to work.

Now I live in another part of town, and it's even more cut off from the downtown area. When my husband takes the car to work, I'm homebound until he gets back, unless I want to borrow a car from relatives.

And the worst part is, the neighborhood where I live used to be very self-sufficient: there was a drugstore, grocery store, icecream shop, florist, hardware store and shoe store all within easy walking distance when I was growing up. Now the florist, hardware store, shoe store and icecream shop are gone (along with the little burger place, I forgot to mention that one). All we have left is the drugstore, which now has a really bad selection of products, and the grocery store which for some reason is the most expensive one in town (this is a middle class neighborhood, but not a rich one.) Oh, we also used to have a neighborhood pool, that's gone too. Now, if you want anything, you pretty much have to go uptown, to the mall or across the river to Wal-Mart (which I avoid like the plague).

Not to make a long post longer, but I was visiting Boston years ago, and fell in love with the T system. It was clean, fast and took me everywhere. The only times I didn't use the T were when I took the bus to go grocery shopping with my friend, and when I took the commuter train to Salem. I would kill to have something like that here. Sigh.

[GRLMGC]

15. Yeah, I liked the T

I could imagine getting around without a car. New York's system is definitely amazing too. I sure as hell would not have a car if I lived there.

[RoseMead]

18. I loved Boston :)

It is one city I would consider moving to, and I don't say that lightly.

I also forgot to mention that when I was a kid here, the grade school, middle school and high school were all within walking distance. Several years ago, however, they consolidated the high school, and it is literally impossible to walk to the new school. With gas the way it is, I'm expecting the county to cut bus runs like they did in the 70's, and that's going to be an additional burden for people with high schoolers in their families.

[GRLMGC]

19. Me too!

I love LA and probably won't leave in spite of its drawbacks but if I had to move, it would probably be to Boston.

[Selatius]

17. Salem had a good T-bus system when I was last there. I used to live there back in 1994.

I don't know if it's changed since then, although my hunch is it hasn't. That city lends itself easily to mass transit because buildings are close together. The city was essentially built before the car was invented, and that might be a reason for its tight urban planning.

[RoseMead]

20. I just took the commuter train

and then walked around Salem when I got there. It was quite cool. The only bad part was that I went there at the end of my trip, and I was really short on money. So I got to walk around outside the House of Seven Gables and Hawthorne's birthplace, but I couldn't affort to pay to go inside. lol

For history lovers, Boston and Salem are both wonderful.

[Selatius]

28. One thing about the Northeast corridor is that their passenger rail is still half-way decent.

In fact, it's probably the best in the country despite that Amtrak only gets roughly a billion a year in subsidies, and McCain wants to junk Amtrak entirely.

[Rosemary2205]

35. WHY DID YOU MOVE !!

The old place was convenient to the ice cream shop and YOU MOVED??? Dummy. !!

:) :) :)

[RoseMead]

43. Oh the ice cream shop was gone before I moved, alas.

This is the neighborhood I grew up in. I just moved up to the other end of town for eight years, and then moved back.

I was conveinently located near the Marshall football stadium, but that just meant I had nowhere to park on game days. And I had lots of drunk college neighbors. :P

[Manifestor_of_Light]

55. Steve's Ice Cream in Somerville???

Where they mixed up M&Ms and such in the ice cream? That was a new thing in the 70s.

[RoseMead]

56. Sounds nummy :)

This was a Valley Bell store in Huntington. The buidling still stands but the ice cream is long gone.

[Selatius]

16. Almost non-existent, basically one route for a city of 16,000+ people.

It is very difficult to get around without a car. Some roads have no sidewalks, just drain-off ditches. If you had a Vespa scooter and weren't afraid of sharing the road with trucks and SUVs, then it's a fine alternative.

[rucky]

22. There's a guy who'll drive you anywhere in the county for four bucks. n/t

[lynnertic]

23. Public transit is so inadequate in Los Gatos, CA that one large employer set up a pvt shuttle

to get their people around at lunchtime.

Not kidding.

[high density]

24. We have a weird squirrelly bus system that nobody rides

The routes go absolutely everywhere in the city, so it takes forever to get where you're going. Whoever came up with the routes must've thought that people can't walk a quarter mile to a bus stop.

[summer borealis]

25. Not bad in Harrisburg, Pa.

Buses cover a lot of ground and train service east to Philly on Amtrak's Keystone Corridor is really great. Trains to the west minimal and to the north/south just a dream. Just wait; in 50 years trains will go everywhere again,

[Spike89]

26. Just did a phone survey with the local transit district

They are in deep financial trouble. Our bus system (Eugene, OR) is decent, but it is funded by business payroll taxes and those are dropping in the (non!?!?) recession and of course, at the same time fuel costs are skyrocketing. Kinda grim and darkly ironic that ridership is booming for the same reason that services may be cut.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

27. I'm about a mile from public buses and they take forever to get to their destinations.

I'm about 10 minutes by car from a train that will take me into NYC or upstate NY/Canada.

[kestrel91316]

29. Are you in the far EAST end or the far WEST end, lol?

Either way, you should know that West LA doesn't want ANY "Valley scum" coming their way. There is a bus route over the Sepulveda Pass, but you will notice how it then winds all over around UCLA and doesn't really serve the West side otherwise.

[GRLMGC]

32. I'm one town away from Simi Valley

Getting to West LA without a car is a horrible experience. Seriously, the only way is to take like ten buses. How else will the housekeepers get there? Ha ha. For the record, my grandmother cleans houses and she had to make these three hour trips to get to work.

[kestrel91316]

38. If you're in Chatsworth you can hop the Metrolink train........

but yeah, then you are in downtown. Not very helpful. Maybe by the time we die they will extend the subway/train to Santa Monica.......

[Bluerthanblue]

31. totally non-existant. No busses, (except school) taxi, or trains.

Rural NH. Large supermarket 12mi. away pushed out our in town IGA.

peace~

[Breeze54]

33. I can't even get a cab, and forget a bus or train !!!

I have to have a car to even get to a train station (5 miles) or a bus (8 miles).
The closest cab company is about 10 miles away and they charge $25.00 just
to come out here + the fare! :(

[Carolina]

40. I'm in SC and it's practically non-existent

I love the idea of public transit and there is clearly a need, but how do those of you with access find the safety?

As a middle-aged female with occasionally odd hours and a bit of arthritis, the thought of standing at a lonely dark bustop or on a desolate train platform scares the heck out of me.

[BrotherBuzz]

41. We have a brand new train station in our small town....

Problem is Amtrak doesn't stop - no train stops. We have a couple of dozen trains passing everyday but our brand new parking lot at the train station remains empty.

I am tempted to start feeding the goats in my area red shirts.

There was a man
(There was a man)
Now please take note
(Now please take note)
There was a man
(There was a man)
Who had a goat
(Who had a goat)

He loved that goat
(He loved that goat)
Indeed he did
(Indeed he did)
He loved that goat
(He loved that goat)
Just like a kid
(Just like a kid)

One day that goat
(One day that goat)
Felt frisk and fine
(Felt frisk and fine)
Ate three red shirts
(Ate three red shirts)
Right off the line
(Right off the line)

The man, he grabbed
(The man, he grabbed)
Him by the back
(Him by the back)
And tied him to
(And tied him to)
A railroad track
(A railroad track)

Now, when that train
(Now, when that train)
Hove into sight
(Hove into sight)
That goat grew pale
(That goat grew pale)
And green with fright
(And green with fright)

He heaved a sigh
(He heaved a sigh)
As if in pain
(As if in pain)
Coughed up those shirts
(Coughed up those shirts)
And flagged the train!
(And flagged the train!)

[blondeatlast]

47. Phoenix, Arizona--awful. nt

[BlooInBloo]

48. It's ok in Seattle, not great, not completely shitty....

I live (near) downtown, and when I worked at Microsoft (10 miles out of the city) was very easy. Probably the ease of getting out of downtown is limited to Microsoft and Boeing locations - and then only at the "right" time of day.

[leftynyc]

49. I commute into New York City

daily by train. Excellent service. Can also take a bus. Within the city, also excellent.

[RebelOne]

50. I'm in Woodstock, northwest of Atlanta

and there isn't any public transportation. Nada, zilch. The closest bus depot is in Kennesaw, about 10 miles away. There are a lot of taxis here and they are making a fortune.

[galledgoblin]

51. in my hometown, it was patchy

it was a small town surrounded by a rural region. within the town you were ok and could get from one side to the other or from one town to another, but only a few times a day. in the rural areas you needed a car.

where I am now is fantastic, I can get anywhere within 3 counties. the bus system was just redone 5 years ago and is up for review next year for further improvement.

[Skidmore]

53. Nonexistent.

[ejpoeta]

54. I live in the country.

When i was younger, before kids I used to ride my bike everywhere. But now, at 35.... things are different. I haven't ridden a bike in over 10 years. I just bought a bike last week. But I fear riding down this road because it is a windy, country road with no room at the side. Cars come barreling down the road. My biggest fear is that my riding on the edge of the road would encourage my children to ride in the road and I don't want that. Besides, there is no public transportation around here. I think there may be a 'bus' in batavia, but I don't know much about it. It's a 20 minute drive to get to batavia anyway. and that's the nearest town. so.... i don't know as i could bike it these days even if i didn't have to lug the kids.

[Brigid]

57. For a town this size, it isn't too bad.

Some of the routes could stand improvement, but I can get around.