Dumb Kwestion #48 - How often you use public transit?

This is a curiosity of mine, to see how people from different parts of the world approach mobility. Some younger urbanites want to abolish cars in cities (and cars in general even), and while I'm all for upping our use of public transit and lessening our dependence on cars, I understand that not everyone has that luxury. So, How often do you use public transit - it can be either in town or between cities.

I'll start... I live in a university city where a bus pass is included in our tuition fees, so I basically get unlimited bus. However, the city isn't huge, so service isn't great. I take my car around town on weekends, but during the week I walk to school (only 10-15 minutes) and bus wherever I need to within reason. It helps me save on gas and it means I don't have to concentrate on traffic, but I have to be mindful of bus schedules and willing to wait a bit here and there. Between cities, though, I drive because Canada has pretty appalling interurban traffic. I typically offer carpooling while I'm at it, to help pay for fuel and also to provide people another option than buses.

I hope this question isn't too eclectic or anything. It's totally fine if you never use transit - some areas are just not set up for that. My hometown certainly isn't.

Great Kwestion!

When I was a University student (way back in the 90's).  I rode the bus twice a day 5 days a week to the University (much cheaper than driving 30+ miles and paying to park).
Today however I basically live in the country, and work 20 miles away in a medium sized city (population of 250,000).  It is pretty much impossible for me to use public transportation.  I would need to drive almost 2/3 of the way to work, park and catch a bus for the last 7 miles, and walk about 3/4 mile the rest of the way to my office (back the way I had come...kind of silly).
The only time I catch a bus or train now is when I go to Seattle to watch a major sporting event.  Even then I have to drive 20 miles to the train and ride the train the last 12 miles into the city.

The closest bus station is about 12 miles from my house....and most of those buses don't even go where I need to be.

Very rarely. In our town of under 100,000 it's not convenient at all.

Only when I have a car emergency...then I take a cab.

I have only used public transport when I was a visitor to Washington, D.C.  We stayed in the Falls Church area (three weeks before the Beltway Shooter incident), and had to walk about .4 of a mile to the subway station.  However, it stopped at almost all the big tourist places we wanted to go.

Here at home, I work about 15 miles away from the school where I work in Lebanon, TN.  There is an above ground train that runs into Nashville, but that station is about the same distance from my house.  Not working in Nashville, I have no need for that train.  Even though I could use the train for going into the city for events, I get home a lot faster if I just drive, bite the bullet, and pay the exorbitant parking prices.  

In tiny little Watertown, you would be doing well if you could find someone who actually drove for Uber.  That would be the closest thing to "public transport".

Never. I haven't ridden a bus since early high school. if I can't drive there, I don't go.

Never...I live in a rural area where the largest city within 100 miles is only 40,000 people. If you want to do anything fun you have to drive a ways to do it.

When I was a kid, I went to school by bus.
Later I needed the train to go to school.

I'm in a small city, we have a station with excellent train connections to the centre of the country.
Now I only use to train to go to my daughter.

I don't use public transportation too much. Back when I was still in Pennsylvania, my wife and I did take the train from Baltimore to Washington D.C. and used the rails in town like Chris. But here in Texas, I only use public transportation ever now and then, like Gary - going to a sporting event or something like that.

I don't use it at all.  Here in Kalispell, they just started bus service about 8 or 9 years ago.

Only when we are on vacation.

Interesting responses. It sounds like many of us live outside of effective transportation areas.

When I lived in Everett we used to take the bus all over.  Even took the "blue" bus to Seattle on occasion.

Xid wrote:

When I lived in Everett we used to take the bus all over.  Even took the "blue" bus to Seattle on occasion.

Oh yeah, Everett was plenty big enough to have a decent bus system.  I used to take the bus to Seattle all the time when I was a teenager without a car.  Heck even when I did get a license I would still take the bus (at least part of the way) to avoid the traffic and the parking expense in Seattle.

I remember when they started the buses in Everett.  I must have been around 10 years old.

Really only when I visit larger cities like Chicago, DC, and Atlanta.  Locally we have a bus service, but I would have drive to get to a place where the bus would stop, so that really cuts down on the usefulness of the bus.

I used to live in Portland, Oregon and can honestly say Portland has an AWESOME public transportation system.  Portland utilizes a light rail that literally bisects the town in half, running as far east as Gresham and far west as Hillsboro while running through downtown.  Separate sections of track branch off and lead to the airport and even the Expo center.

I lived on the far east side in an apartment within easy walking distance of a light rail station and LOVED taking the train downtown or catching events at the Expo center (such as the giant summer antique show).  Whenever family would visit from Washington, they would insist on taking a trip on the light rail.

I currently reside in Phoenix, and while Phoenix has a comparable light rail system, it does not go anywhere of interest.  Plus the closest station is nowhere near where I currently live.  Yes, the light rail goes through downtown, but unlike Portland, downtown Phoenix is pretty much boring (downtown Phoenix is so deserted that during the weekend you could probably fire a cannon and no one would take notice).

Contrast this with downtown Portland, which includes Powell's Books (the largest bookstore on the West Coast) in addition to a high volume of eclectic and unique shopping and eating places (including several  cool independent record stores).