How to Use Public Transit

1. Sell your car. You can always rent a car for the few occasions (e.g. a trip to the desert) where a car is needed. You will still come out ahead financially. The motor vehicle is destroying the Earth! It is polluting the atmosphere, land, and water. It is clogging the roadways, which should all be turned into bike paths. Its need for space is destroying huge amounts of wildlife habitat and preventing wildlife from travelling. This is all unnecessary and inexcusable. This includes "green" cars. Whenever I see a hybrid or electric or miniature car, I think "Why not just get a bicycle???" Motor vehicles should be reserved for people who can't ride a bicycle – although the electric bicycle should satisfy most of those people.
2. Most people don’t understand that in order for public transit to be viable, you have to arrange your life around it. That means, first of all, live and work near public transit. In other words, don’t buy a house on top of a hill, where transit will never be profitable.
3. Make use of the online resources, such as Google maps, www.511.org, or www.metro.net, which are available in every major city. The computer can tell you in seconds how to get around using public transit, so that you don’t have to juggle paper schedules from every transit agency.
4. To save even more money, and improve your health as well, buy a bicycle and use it for all local trips and to extend longer trips on public transit. The best place to but a bike is in a yard sale. Many people have perfectly good, unused bikes in their garages. Next best are the online resources such as Craig’s List (www.craigslist.org), eBay (www.ebay.com), etc.
5. Even better, if you have the time, is walking. Walking (and using public transit) has an advantage over bicycling: you can read while walking (or riding the bus or train), saving time and getting smarter. J I carry a book with me wherever I go, so I never worry about how long I have to wait. I always have something productive to do with the time.