Are you too good to ride the bus?

If we had a reasonable bus system here, I would take it, no problem. I grew up taking buses everywhere.

But I live out in the semi-boonies and there is no bus system to speak of that goes anywhere but downtown

Not at all. I took public transportation for years from age 11 to 30. Busses, city trains, commuter rails — they’re all fine.

Only downside was the crowding (on buses and city trains) and summer heat (on buses).

If I was working in Boston again, I’d probably take the commuter rail again. I like driving in the city, but parking is stupid expensive.

It wouldn’t be my first choice, so I’d accept the town car. Here it’s a bit dangerous to use public transport. Even cabs or Uber would be more safe.

I always take the train to NYC when I go in and the subway for getting around.

Town car is of course simply the model name for the standard Lincoln sedan usually designated for livery work. And if someone is offering to provide you chauffered door to door transportation to the airport in preference to the bus, it’s a no brainer. I’m not too snooty to ride a bus, but if given the choice of a FREE chauffered ride in a limo, where my luggage is wrestled for me, what sort of dimwit would choose mass transit? The standard airport to city bus ride here is a thing called the airporter. There used to be a van service as well that would pick you up at your home or hotel if arranged the day before. I don’t actually know if either the bus or van are in business since the BART system was extended to the airport.

I’m not “too good”, I’m just “too” resolute to avoid Covid.

I take the local rapid transit to get to work. I have no qualms about taking a bus if necessary. I would take rapid transit to he airport too if it could work out well, but the system shuts down too early for many arrivals and starts too late for early morning departures.

I took the bus all the time in college, but haven’t really since. Now my choice would be Lyft. (When I went to NYC this spring with a few friends, we took Lyfts everywhere, though we did take the Subway a few times).

I ride the bus all around. I rode it yesterday.

Setting covid aside for my answer, no I’m not too good.

I take a shuttle bus to the airport all the time where I live. That’s a private bus, it goes directly from a stop in The Villages to the airport and vice versa.

In NYC I sometimes take the subway to the bus to get to the airport. That’s part of the public transportation system. I use the bus in NYC for getting around in general, although, mostly I use the subway.

In DC I take the bus from the airport if I land at BWI. Public bus also.

I took a bus when I travelled from Montreal to Vermont several years ago. Private. Maybe it was Greyhound I don’t remember.

I will say it varies by location who uses buses. Some routes I might be more reluctant than others. Also, if it has a lot of stops I might want something more direct.

I would take the cheapest option that didn’t take too long, esp. if I had more than 1 piece of luggage. For me, from expensive to cheap:
Limo (Town Car), taxi, Uber/Lyft, Super shuttle, drive and park. Regular bus would take more than an hour.

I always take BART when I’m in the Bay Area and often from the East Bay it is the most efficient way.

I have no problem with public transportation and more people should do that if able. I think he just wanted you to ride with him in more private surroundings and maybe impress you a little. I don’t know what your relationship is with him and obviously don’t need to know but maybe he likes you?

My answer is the same as @elbanditoroso. I live in the boondocks and the closest bus is five to 7 miles away from my house. It would be nice to leave my 25 mile commute ride to someone else. I would probably nap the whole trip to and from work.

It’s not such a good idea here and it’s not very practical. I value my time, health and safety so I’m going with yes.

I will ride the bus all day, even though I do not know who that is.

I’m not too good. I need a small truck for my business and I use it for personal reasons, too, so it doesn’t make sense to leave it home and take the bus if I want to go anywhere, like to the store. (And I consolidate my business trips to get all of my personal business done at the same time which keeps all mileage acceptable for tax purposes.)

Of course I don’t think I am too good for the bus.
Where I live now has no local bus service. Otherwise, I probably would, especially with gas prices.

Yes, one is.

Too good??? No.

I think I’m actually more aloof towards “town cars”, for different reasons (I don’t really like limos or lite limos).

But I would rather share a ride with one person going straight to the airport. That makes sense to me.

I’ve taken the bus and light rail to/from SEA airport several times. Usually it was a pretty decent way to get there.

(Once I took a surface bus from SEA to Seattle that took forever – that I would not do again unless I was intentionally trying to repeat that strange and tedious experience.)

Depending on where you live, busses are seen as things for poor people and criminals.

In NYC, people make 200k a year and take the bus. If you’re in a smaller town, your parents should have bought you a car or something is clearly wrong lol.

Just depends on a lot of factors.

Busses also are slower to take many times because of all the stops and having to drive slower.

I don’t get it either. Bus service is great when destination parking is a problem.

No not at all, but I have to say I really dislike the bus.
I’m from a small town that doesn’t need a transit system,and when in large cities I always have my vehicle so don’t need it then as well.

What? No. But public transportation ain’t what it used to be.

I’m not too good to take a bus. And what is an aeroplane anyway but a bus that flies.

Parking in large downtown e.g. Boston, NYC, SF is too frustrating and expensive for me. Bus and subway are way better.

I take the train to NYC (about an hour and a half ride) but to me, that’s different than taking a bus to the airport. When I am going to the airport, I usually have some big luggage, numerous luggage pieces or heavy pieces. To me, taking that on a bus would not be preferable to taking a town car (or what we call “radio car”) to the airport.

I also think of public transportation as dirty or potentially dirty, so there’s that.

Where I live, there are no buses around. If there was a bus, I probably wouldn’t take it, I’d probably wait to get a ride from a friend. I’m not “too good” to take the bus, I just would not prefer the inconvenience of it.

When I was a teenager, I took the bus all the time, and the train to NYC or the subway to NYC. I lived closer to NYC than I do now and I didn’t drive, so I had no choice.

NYC has really tough parking so taking some form of public transportation there is preferable.

Not too good…too anxious. There are certain things in life which require a certain amount of confidence, like riding a motorcycle, or jogging on a major street, or riding a bus. Perhaps none of you can imagine that, but trust me, there are those of us who are too anxious to do those things, at least alone.

One of my favorite quotes is: “Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.” :::Albert Camus

Expending the energy to do even simple things is mentally and to some extent physically exhausting.

@smudges Why is it anxiety provoking? Being in a small space?

@smudges My doctors had told me that I have an “anxiety problem” and have offered me drugs (that I refuse to take). Being around people is exhausting to me. They drain my energy. I manage OK on the bus perhaps because it’s like a warm up to being on an airplane for 10 hours. My team mate who thinks riding the bus is beneath his ego is an over the top extreme extrovert. He has a very strong personality. Don’t know how I’m going to survive sharing a small hotel room with him and being around him all day for 10 days in London (starting on August 6th). Lord give me strength.
Good health to you.

^^Oh gosh. When I was younger I didn’t mind sharing rooms. Now, I would dread it. One or two days fine, but much more than that I need a two bedroom suit. Lol.

@gondwanalon I would have gone for a single too if I were you and could afford it.

@JLeslie I would love to share a room with someone but she would have to not be male. I don’t need that problem.

@JLeslie: I just took a trip with my daughter and a female friend, about two weeks long. The three of us were in one room. I think what made it worked is that my friend is not always talking, and I’m not always talking so we each had our own space in that way. If the other person was a very peppy personality it would be hard to tolerate for days at a time. I don’t mind chattiness, but I need a break from that, too.

@jca2 Yes, I have one friend that I travel with and can share a room with happily because we accommodate each other’s kinks. Others can be very good friends but with differing needs so it wouldn’t work as well.

When I worked for Bloomingdales, when we traveled to NYC for meetings, they would have us share rooms. There was a group of 4 of us who were friends, and we would work it out so we could stay an extra night/day to have fun on the company’s dime, which meant 4 of us wound up in one room the last day. We would sleep two in a bed (queen size). Lol. It was crazy. Especially considering I could stay with my grandmother 4 blocks away, but I’d stay in the room with them. My coworker who I was in the bed with, we both slept fairly still and soundly, but the other two had stories of stealing the blanket and waking each other up. Made for funny stories.

I have a friend I used to travel with and we always shared a room, it was almost always a suite, but we shared the bed. I’m sure I could still travel with her fine.

The biggest problem would be if they like the room very cold. I hate that.

@JLeslie: I really dislike the practice of companies putting strangers in the same room. I feel it’s disrespectful. I underrstand they do it to save money but the cost of a hotel room is relatively minor (a decent hotel can be had for about 150 a night) in a company’s budget.

When I started with my previous employer, over 20 years ago, the employer had a four week training program, every other week, all week, where participants would go from all over the state for the week and stay in a hotel. They put us up, two in a room. I was very nervous about my new roommate and I found out that she was very nervous about what I would be like. Fortunately for the both of us, we got along really well and are friends to this day. She lives upstate, so we haven’t seen each other in person since the training but we keep in touch on social media and we both would get together if we were ever in each others’ neighborhoods.

Sharing a room with someone who is pretty much a stranger can be awkward. I traveled with my daughter’s robotics team for out of town competitions. One time I had to room with a guy who was fine walking around the room naked. Eww! At least he was generally cool to be with.

@jca2 Luckily, we usually wound up with someone we knew, we could say who we wanted to room with, but some people wound up with strangers if they didn’t know anyone who was going.

Being with a stranger can be awkward. Usually, I think it works out ok. When it doesn’t work well it’s annoying.

When I was young I didn’t care. Now, I like my alone time more.

Money isn’t an issue with me. My retirement penetrations and investments have more than reached critical mass. But I’ve been frugal all my life and it’s hard to change. I don’t mind spending money but I void wasting it. I spent over $4K USD on hotel, rental car and plane. Spent another $3K on canoe rental. All for 10 day of international canoe racing. I’m willing to suffer with economy plane seat and having a roommate (who pays half), sharing experiences for a rental car and riding the bus. Perhaps after this trip I’ll change my frugal ways. HA!

Thanks for all your thoughts.

@JLeslie Why is it anxiety provoking? Being in a small space?

No, although small spaces cause me anxiety and sometimes panic. I just have generalized anxiety, as well as a little social anxiety. I was afraid of people for years, and I think that, although that’s much better, the anxiety is a residual effect. I live with it, and pretend a lot, and don’t tell many people (in person) about it because it’s hard to explain. Covid didn’t help at all! I don’t go that many places to begin with and Covid just fed into that. I can do lots of things if someone is with me, but not if I’m alone. Haven’t quite figured out why that is, but at age 65, I just accept that that’s the way I am. ¯\(ツ)/¯

@gondwanalon Yes, I get exhausted after about 2 hours around people…even if they’re good friends! I just need some alone time to recharge.

Sending you much positive energy for your trip. I really do sympathize.

@smudges I understand more than you would think. In my first post I had to set covid aside to answer.

Taking the bus for the airport where I live stresses me regarding having to be on time for the bus, because if I miss it, that can mean missing the plane. The shuttles where I live leave every 1.5 hours off-peak, and every hour in the middle of the day. It extends my pre-plane trip two hours, which I find annoying, it is already 1.25 hours to get to the airport. the Orlando airport is ok, and I don’t mind spending a lot of time there, so getting there early for some cushion doesn’t bother me much. It also stresses me where I live that the bus ride is mostly on the turnpike, and some drivers drive too fast in my opinion, that stresses me out. My reaction to how people drive is exaggerated since my accident. City buses I wouldn’t have that problem.

Add in covid and it is kind of a mess for me, I do worry about flying with the covid situation.

No, had taken the Buslines out of Town to several Towns,Cities etc until they cancelled the Public Busline here in our Town.

I took a rented car but the costs have gone way too high for me now.

For our Town a company purchsed a huge Bus for anyone to take to their appointments,

shopping etc to another City there and back for only $20 ( CDN) , and they pick everyone up

at their home at 7— 8 AM and return by 4 PM that day .

Air conditioned and modern design too.

@JLeslie Good point about the time issue. It adds so much time onto a trip, taking public transportation, and if taking a bus to a plane and you miss the bus, it could be a crisis.

@JLeslie I understand about the time issues, like @jca2. I hatehatehate depending on people to get where I need to be. I get so anxious that they’re going to screw it up. I’ve had lots of surgeries in the past few years, and I almost always have to be at the hospital at either 5:30 or 7:30. Since it’s so early I don’t like to ask a friend, so I take an Uber and I always stress about whether I’ll be able to find a ride, will they be on time, and will they get me there on time. Will my surgery be cancelled if I’m 30 mins late, what will the docs think of me that I can’t even get to surgery on time, etc. So, when I’m driving, I’m always early wherever I go.

Flights stress me the same way, and now I can’t walk so fast so, although I hate it, sometimes I’ll get a wheelchair. Makes me feel old and feeble! :(

Thanks for understanding – I get you, too!

@smudges I think it is horrible that people often have to show up at the hospital at o’dark hundred AM. I don’t understand the medical doctor fascination with early procedures except that they want to get to a golf game. Maybe emergency surgeries happen a lot in the afternoon and evening? I don’t know.

Generally, I am not an “on time” person, I often run a little late. The thing about being on time is the only way to guarantee being on time is to be early. I am early when it’s important to be on time to try to avoid being very stressed, but having to leave very early is stressful to me also. It’s a catch 22.

I COMPLETELY agree that you have to expect that whatever you plan for transportation or anything might get screwed up.

Here’s me yesterday talking to my dad: I want to order a computer, but I won’t be home for a week. If it gets to my house too soon, and they attempt delivery three times, it will get sent back.

My dad said: just tell them not to ship it for a week.

In my mind, the person on the phone at the computer company will say, “ok, no problem,” and then it will get packed and shipped as it usually does and what the phone person says means nothing. Just like I order my Coke no ice, but it usually comes to the table full of ice.

@JLeslie and then it will get packed and shipped as it usually does

Either that or they’ll goof it up by cancelling your order! lol

About the docs and surgery…most docs only do surgery 2, maybe 3 days a week. The other days they’re seeing pts in their office – either new pts, or pts they’ve done sugery on. So that means they have to cram a lot of people in on the surgery days. One ortho doc has done 4 of my surgeries; all were on either a Tuesday or Friday; now he only does surgery on Tuesdays. He was able to work me in for my rotator cuff next Tuesday because he (his surgery scheduler) ‘borrowed’ time from another surgeon who wasn’t going to be there at 7:30. And even so I’ve had to wait 5 weeks; it would have been 7. So although people think docs have easy schedules and can pick and choose when to work, they really don’t. I’m sure they’re not all like that, but if he’s good and cares about his profession, he works more often than not. I’ve learned how it works over the years and many surgeries. LOL

@smudges Good luck with your rotator cuff surgery, my dad had that done and he is doing great like it never even happened! :)

@RayaHope Thanks, I’ve had it before (3x, both shoulders) and it’s one of the most painful of my surgeries – the other 2 being open heart, which took a long time to heal from, and back surgery 6 weeks ago, which healed very quickly. Rotator cuff takes 3–4 months of 3x/wk physical therapy. It’s such a pain – pun intended

Thank you for your wishes! I’m glad your dad’s doing well! Just be aware that he’s more likely to have it tear again than someone who never had problems. I had my left one done in 2013, same one this time.

@smudges He only had one surgery, 3x yikes sorry you had to go through all that. Well wishes {HUGS} oooh sorry about your shoulder. :)

Setting COVID concerns aside, I love and hate the bus.

Really comes down to how robust and dependable the public transit system is.

Loved riding the bus in the Bay Area. Hated it in San Diego County or Orange County.

The bus system in Germany was pretty reliable. Though I was always a bit nervous that I’d end up at the wrong place because I’d read the schedule incorrectly or something.