Who uses the city bus as their main mode of transportation?

I live in downtown Toronto. I walk most places, but if my destination isn’t within walking distance, I take the subway most often. For trips that require too many subway/streetcar/bus transfers, I drive.

Before I got my license, I hated taking the bus. The bus service in my hometown is absolutely appalling.

I usually ride a bus and a train to work. Sometimes I drive.

Driving is 45 minutes, public transportation takes an hour. But I can read a book or magazine for that hour so I think it’s a net gain. Driving is more a chore.

I mainly use Shanks’ pony (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shanks'_pony).

I have to use the bus because I have a visual disability and I will never be able to drive. It takes me over an hour to make the 4 mile trip to work. Even at rush hour, in a car it would be no more than 20 minutes. Aside from being slow, the bus service here is frequent, runs til late at night, and I can get to just about anywhere I need to go without having to beg a lift off someone.

I can get from my flat to the centre of town in 30 minutes by bus. Travelling by car would get me there in 20 minutes but then I would have to find somewhere to park so there is not much in it timewise. The bus to me is less hassle than driving as I can relax in the bus, read a paper, chat to other passengers and not worry about the traffic. There is a bus every 10 minutes so I never have to time them. I can also take a bus out of town to just about anywhere I want to go and it is cheaper than owning a car.

I have never owned a car. I never even bothered to learn how to drive. Car ownership is such a breathtakingly selfish, ignorant, antisocial thing to do that I am at a loss to explain how anyone can drive a car and think of themselves as a decent human being. Each time the owner of an automobile gets in hir car, sie endangers the lives of everyone else around hir, for no better reason than because sie can and because it’s convenient. And that’s not even mentioning the way cars distort and destroy the shape of communities, devastate the environment, and produce situational sociopathy by making people feel omnipotent when they’re behind the wheel.

@SmashTheState It’s kind of interesting, too, to consider how the way everything is arranged around car culture, particularly outside of cities, pushes people into using cars so much.

@SmashTheState Not all of us live in urban areas. You can’t function as a human where I live without a car.

@incendiary_dan That’s to what I was referring when I mentioned distortion of the shape of our communities. It has become a self-sustaining vicious circle where car use allows for the creation of unsustainable communities which require car use.

@kenmc Our genus managed to survive for some 2 million years without internal combustion. In any case, it’s not going to matter for long. Our society is now so wildly unsustainable that the rule of the car is ending one way or another. I just hope your reliance on the automobile doesn’t result in human extinction along the way.

I suppose if I start walking now, I’ll make it to work on time tomorrow.

Now I’m tempted to branch off into a discussion about whether or not work is necessary or desirable, but that gets me into a whole other thing about debt slavery and civilization’s work-managing and denial of our direct experience and such…

When I lived in the DC metro area I used the metro (subway) to get to work sometimes. I liked it, because during rush hour it took about the same amount of time, and I did not really have to concentrate, I could read or rest my eyes. If I lived in a city like NY I would be thrilled to give up driving and use public transportation.

To be honest, I use walking as my main mode of transportation. I am not at all adverse to a walk of several miles so long as the weather permits. But if the weather is bad of it’s over an hour’s walk, I rely on the MBTA here in Boston. If the T (subway lines) go anywhere near my destination, I go with the T. It’s much faster than a bus (no frequent stops, red lights, or crazy traffic) and there is a T stop within a few blocks of my condo. If the T doesn’t get me where I want to go, I use the bus or a combination of T and bus.

I donated my car to charity several years ago. There was nowhere to park it in Boston. If I drove it somewhere, there was nowhere to park it there either. The advantages of being car free include no car insurance, no paid parking, no parking tickets, no worry where to put it when they declare a snow emergency and want the streets cleared for plowing, no repairs or replacement costs. And on top of all that, being car free lets me leave a much smaller carbon footprint.

@SmashTheState Have you forgotten about rural America?

We only have one vehicle in the family, which my husband uses to get himself to the farm he works at, 37 miles from our home.

I wish I had a bus to ride into town when my husband is at work. We live on a farm that is 3 miles from two towns, the largest having a population of 3,000. The next largest town is 17 miles away, with a population of 15,000. We need to travel 60 miles before we can visit a city with over 100,000 people. You guessed it, no bus for us.

I guess I could walk the 3 miles to town to get groceries. It would be difficult to carry what I needed since I need to feed a family of 4 (5 when my oldest son is home visiting from college). Hopefully my 7 year old daughter doesn’t get sick. I’d have to carry her 17 miles to the nearest doctor. yeah, fuck cars

I only travel in my car when I absolutely need to. That’s what you do when you live in rural America. gas isn’t cheap

I have never owned a car. I have yet to even get a driver’s license (I am in my mid 30’s). It can be a pain to get around, and it’s especially tough on the social life (“Would you like to go out Saturday night? I’ll pick you up around eight o’clock…on my mountain bike”) – but, I very much like not having to worry about car insurance, gas, repairs, etc. Additionally, I have very little tolerance for stupidity/inconsiderate behavior – so being car-less frees me from what I’m sure would amount to daily frustration with other motorists.

On one hand, I share the same views of @FutureMemory on owning a car, but then again I would prefer having a car. You can listen to music as loud as you wanted; you can leave for places when you wanted and not based on the bus;and most importantly, you don’t have to deal with the smelly and the weird that always seem to ride the bus.

Unfortunately, i will be riding until i can afford a car.