Anybody Regularly Use Mass Transit?

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Hi All,

Just looking for regular (or semi-regular) users of mass transit for an upcoming project. Why do you do it? In a super-concentrated city like New York and Chicago it makes sense, but what about in other places?

Anybody here take the bus, vanpool or ride their bike to work? Do you do it for environmental reasons (reduce carbon dioxide, cut down on use of fossil fuels, foreign oil), or is it because you can save money (cost of gas, cost of maintenance, wear and tear)?

I realize not everyone can utilize mass transit, with the schedules many of us have and coverage areas being so spread out, but I would like to hear from regular users and if you don't use mass transit and it is offered in your area, what would encourage you to take it?

Thanks for your help

 

[HC]

I used transit when I was working downtown. It was easy and cheaper than driving. Then I started commuting by bicycle. Even cheaper, good exercise and yes, I do worry about the environment. I work closer to home now (about 9 kms) and still ride whenever possible. Otherwise, JR drops me on the way to his office. (I live in Toronto, BTW)

 

[Boom_70]

Semi Regular to NYC and Yankee stadium. Main reason - time - In rush hour it could take me up to 2 hours. Train is just under an hour. I can sleep or read.

Since they added stop train is best way to get to Yankee Stadium. No longer have to battle the traffic.

 

[JR]

I used transit when I was working downtown. It was easy and cheaper than driving. Then I started commuting by bicycle. Even cheaper, good exercise and yes, I do worry about the environment. I work closer to home now (about 9 kms) and still ride whenever possible. Otherwise, JR drops me on the way to his office. (I live in Toronto, BTW)

I used to take the commuter train semi-regularly when I worked downtown. Two stops, 15 minutes. In rush hour it's a half hour drive.

Where I work now is a 15 minute drive (am going against the rush hour traffic).

To get there by public transit means a bus, subway and another bus. It's anywhere from 50 to 70 minutes. No thanks

 

[ucacm]

I live in DC and ride the train everywhere. I don't have a car. On top of the regular expenses of having a vehicle, it's $60 a month for a parking spot at my apartment complex, my commute time would easily double if I drove to work, then I'd probably have to pay a couple hundred bucks a month to park near work. Then, it seems like every place you go around DC, even the mall, charges you for parking.

When I moved to DC, I was unsure about not bringing my vehicle, but it's worked out perfectly fine. If I want to get out of the city on the weekend, I go to the airport and get a rental car (I do this maybe once every couple of months). Also, I talked my work into paying for my mass transit use. Even better. I spend zero dollars a month in transportation fees unless I stay out late and want to take a taxi home.

 

[Beef03]

I used mass transit my first year of college in Edmonton. Hated it. Took four times as long to get anywhere than by driving. Also the bus drivers on my route regularly exhibited road rage, chased down those who cut them off, etc. My second year of college I had a cheap car, took me maybe 10 minutes to drive to school, by bus it was closer to 45. It wasn't an environmental concern as to why I used the bus, it was a pure cost concern.

There is a bus system in the city I live in now (100,000 pop), but I haven't used it once in the almost four years I have lived here now. Just far too inconveniant. I like to be able to just drive where I want, when I want, also parking usually isn't a big problem where I live. But I am also in a position now where I can afford it. My job also requires it. If my job didn't require it, I probably would bus to work. I know the city I lived in at my last stop didn't have any kind of mass transit and people are constantly lobbying for it. I know my sister who didn't have a vehicle and lived a good ways from any grocery store and the restaurants she worked at would have used it daily. For where I live a car is almost necessary though, especially if I want to travel anywhere, there is no train system connecting cities and taking Grey Hound is not convieniant either -- takes twice as long and costs almost as much.

 

[Buck]

I used to ride my bike to work, although that's not mass transit.
I now live 20 miles outside of town and no longer ride my bike to work.

 

[YankeeFan]

Semi Regular to NYC and Yankee stadium. Main reason - time - In rush hour it could take me up to 2 hours. Train is just under an hour. I can sleep or read.

Since they added stop train is best way to get to Yankee Stadium. No longer have to battle the traffic.

So, after the game, do you have to go south to 125th St. to catch the New Haven line?

Do they just shuttle people to 125th, or do you have to wait for scheduled service?

 

[YankeeFan]

In a place like NYC, there's almost no good option to mass transit. With parking costs & traffic, it's just not worth it.

That said, I hated commuting via subway.

For a couple of years, I lived in the North Bronx and commuted to the World Trade Center. Over an hour on the train, and even though I got on at one of the first stops, I never got a seat.

At first, I drove to a stop where I could park for free all day. (And where you could score some crack or a prostitute on the way home.) Later, after my friend totaled my car, I walked to a different stop. It was a pretty good walk. It was uphill, and in the summer, you'd have sweated through your clothes before you even got to the train.

Later, I lived on the Upper West Side. I commuted to City Hall. But, both my stop and City Hall were local stops. So, you either had to endure local stops all the way, or change trains to the express and then change back to the local. I think the odds of ending up back on your original train were pretty good.

Because I use my car for work now, I almost never take mass transit. Anywhere but the loop I can find a parking space if I'm a little patient. And, with the car, I'll go to dinner in various neighborhoods that I probably wouldn't if I had to take the train.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

I used mass transit my first year of college in Edmonton. Hated it. Took four times as long to get anywhere than by driving. Also the bus drivers on my route regularly exhibited road rage, chased down those who cut them off, etc. My second year of college I had a cheap car, took me maybe 10 minutes to drive to school, by bus it was closer to 45. It wasn't an environmental concern as to why I used the bus, it was a pure cost concern.

There is a bus system in the city I live in now (100,000 pop), but I haven't used it once in the almost four years I have lived here now. Just far too inconveniant. I like to be able to just drive where I want, when I want, also parking usually isn't a big problem where I live. But I am also in a position now where I can afford it. My job also requires it. If my job didn't require it, I probably would bus to work. I know the city I lived in at my last stop didn't have any kind of mass transit and people are constantly lobbying for it. I know my sister who didn't have a vehicle and lived a good ways from any grocery store and the restaurants she worked at would have used it daily. For where I live a car is almost necessary though, especially if I want to travel anywhere, there is no train system connecting cities and taking Grey Hound is not convieniant either -- takes twice as long and costs almost as much.

Are you saying the value of your time is the biggest consideration? A premise of my report is that if any trip to work takes more than a half hour, people with cars will just drive.

Are there any incentives that would encourage you to take mass transit, say once a week? A Tax break, or preferred parking at work when you do drive?

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

Do NOT use mass transit:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/peewee_perv_strikes_again_iIQRK4XDAWAZFsrnXcjgGP

 

[YankeeFan]

Years ago, I got a college buddy of mine a job interview on the commodities exchange with REFCO, who I was working for at the time.

He spent the night at my place in the Bronx and commuted in with me in the morning.

It was summer, so he didn't sleep well from all of the noise one the street (and back then, car alarms would go off all the time and just blare all night).

He had luggage with him, so we took a cab to the subway. Well, in the Bronx, there aren't any legit cabs, so I flagged down a "gypsy" cab -- an illegal, unregulated cab. (Some are licensed for door-to-door, radio dispatched call, but they can't except a street hail. Others are plain illegal. This one was plain illegal) This alone freaked him out.

Then, there was feces on the steps leading down to the train. I forget what he evidence was, but he determined it was human, not dog.

Then, the train broke down. The engineer came on and announced that the emergency break had been activated and that before we could proceed, he's have to get out and make sure he hadn't run over anyone.

I'm pretty sure this was the last straw.

My friend got offered the job, but decided to get his masters instead.

 

[Quakes]

I'm not sure if I'm who you're interested in, because I live in Chicago, but I use mass transit just about every day. It's very convenient for me, because I live very close to an L stop and work very close to another stop on the same line. (My commute, from the time I leave my apartment to the time I sit in my chair in my office, takes as little as 15 minutes.) Even when I have to go somewhere in the city besides work, my first inclination is to use mass transit, whether it's the L or a bus. Rarely do I use my car.

The convenience of mass transit, to me, encompasses more than just the time saved. I would use it even if I didn't live so close to the L. It's cheaper and less of a hassle than driving, which requires me to find a place to park, and pay for parking, and -- eventually -- gas. That's why I often use it even when driving would be faster. And while it's not a decisive factor, I do like the environmental benefit of using mass transit.

But the key is that, in a city like Chicago, the mass transit system is so extensive that using it is actually a real option. If I lived in a city that only had buses, and they didn't go everywhere or run very frequently, I'm sure my first inclination would be to drive everywhere.

 

[jackfinarelli]

I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC and there is a Metrorail stop 0.9 miles from my front door.

I use Metrorail to go downtown ONLY when I am going somewhere that is a reasonable walk through a reasonable neighborhood once I get out of the Metro station.

Nationals Park is such a destination but there are plenty of others that do NOT qualify.

 

[wicked]

I grew up using mass transit every day in Boston. My parents didn't drive, so it was my only option.

I live in NoVA now and would love to use mass transit to get to my job, but I work in the 'burbs and taking the two buses would be at least an hour; it's a 10-minute drive against traffic. I recently interviewed for a job in D.C. and being able to Metro in/out and have an easy commute was very appealing, but it didn't happen.

I probably Metro into D.C./Arlington three or four times a month, when I'm going to Nats Park or down on the Mall or Gallery Place, somewhere of that ilk. If I lived three blocks from the Metro as opposed to three miles, I'd do it more.

 

[albert77]

No mass transit out here in BF Mississippi (well, there is, sort of, but it doesn't come anywhere near where I live). But when my sister and her husband lived in Chicago, they took the trains everywhere. They lived out on the far northwest end of the city (about as far out as you can get and still be in the city limits), so they had a car, but if they wanted to go anywhere in the city, they left it at home and took the train.

Actually, they lived pretty close to I-94, and when we went to visit them before they moved, I found it really wasn't a bad drive to downtown, if you avoided rush hours. But I think if I lived some place that had a good rail system, I'd take full advantage of it.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Do NOT use mass transit:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/peewee_perv_strikes_again_iIQRK4XDAWAZFsrnXcjgGP

I ride the subway a lot. And by far my favorite automated message, which comes on occasionally, is, "Ladies and gentleman, a crowded subway is no excuse for improper sexual conduct.”

 

[crimsonace]

If it were more available to me and convenient, I would.

Not for environmental reasons, but because I really don't like to drive.

But I live in one suburb and work in another about 12 miles away, and even if I lived in the city, Indianapolis has quite possibly the worst mass transit system in the country. If Indy had a reasonable transit system, I'd have to be on buses/trains for about 60 miles to make my 12-mile commute, so it's not worth it.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

If it were more available to me and convenient, I would.

Not for environmental reasons, but because I really don't like to drive.

But I live in one suburb and work in another about 12 miles away, and even if I lived in the city, Indianapolis has quite possibly the worst mass transit system in the country. If Indy had a reasonable transit system, I'd have to be on buses/trains for about 60 miles to make my 12-mile commute, so it's not worth it.

You are the type of person I am looking for. Its easy to take the metro/subway in New York, DC, or Chicago, but what about other urban areas that don't have as much infastructure in place?

If you did live on a bus line, how much time would you be willing to spend on a bus? What would make you try it, or at least ditch your car once a week for the local transit option?


Sorry for all the questions, but I am just looking for background for a possible gig with the local transit agency.

 

[Boom_70]

Semi Regular to NYC and Yankee stadium. Main reason - time - In rush hour it could take me up to 2 hours. Train is just under an hour. I can sleep or read.

Since they added stop train is best way to get to Yankee Stadium. No longer have to battle the traffic.

So, after the game, do you have to go south to 125th St. to catch the New Haven line?

Do they just shuttle people to 125th, or do you have to wait for scheduled service?

Right after game you can get direct train from Stadium to CT. Otherwise shuttle to 125th and hop on scheduled service. If you have to go to 125th usually wait is not long.