public transportation...

[karizma]

>> alright so since im lacking a license and a car i take public transportation pretty often...[busses n trains]...and oh god how ive come to loathe taking the bus...waiting out in the freezing cold or melting hot for that damn bus to come...

>> when i get on its not any better either...once in a while i get some real whackjobs...once while sitting there staring absent-mindedly out the window this guy in back of me starts singing folk songs annoying loud...i slink down lower into my seat when all of a sudden i feel a few abrupt taps on the top of my head...oh god this isnt happening i think to myself...i slouch even lower and silently curse to myself...

>> another time i was sitting there when this guy proceeds to take off his shoes and proclaims to the whole bus, it seemed, that his feet hurt...he then goes on to take off his sock revealing this massive growth the size of a softball on his calf...it was...so...damn...gross i could barely stomache it.

>> last one...there was this guy...obviously mentally challenged...he stared at me for the duration of the bus ride from when i got on til when he got off...the most uncomfortable 30 minutes of my life...

>> do any of you have experiences like mine? please do share...id like to think that theres at least one person out there who shares my pain lol.

[kimpossible]

For some reason I always get stuck near stoner skaterats or the mentally challenged with Intense Manson Stare.

My Anti-Freak tactic is headphones and a book.

[deez nuts]

- let's see got mugged and jumped twice taking the subway to and from my high school.

-some cat flashed me and girlfriend at the time on the subway

-got harassed numerous times by pan handlers on the subway

-random homeless guy peeing in the corner of the subway

[johnny]

karizma,
where are u located again? depending on your location you better watch out for weirdos. your solution: get a BF to drive your a$$ around town.

[karizma]

>> im in a relatively safe city...i dont worry much about being mugged or kidnapped *knocks on wood*...

>> as for snagging a bf to drive me around...im one of the independent types and would rather work on my own schedule rather than have someone pencil me into theirs....'sides why would the guy need to be my bf before he drives me around? hah...there are many +'s to being a manipulative chick ^_^...im waiting for my m3 anyways :D

[amietron]

All of last year I rode the train to and from school, from Hillsdale station all the way to Palo Alto station, and back. My school is give or take 10 minutes from Palo Alto station driving. We used to have to ride these big van-bus things to school. Not mini shuttles. They're huge family vans that carry something like 14 passengers each. Every day they'd come at different times, so you'd never know which train you'd have to catch home. Unreliable, inconvenient service. School paid them something like $125,000 to drive us to and from the station before and after school. This year they're charging $1,700 a head to ride the shuttle for the whole year. Isn't that ridiculous? As though just the tuition weren't enough.

If you ever take the train in the mornings or around 4 or 5 in the late afternoon, look around. Sometimes there are HOT guys riding on the trains. I go gaga, and my school friends/train buddies think I'm cuckoo cus "he's not even hot." Bad taste? Oh well..

I don't like it when unkept, not well dressed people sit next to me. Don't like it when women spray stinky parfum on themselves that stinks up the whole train car. I don't like when people leave their garbage all over the place. Don't like when people vandalize/graffiti on the windows. I don't like the fact that the train only comes once every half hour. I think I'm overreacting a little bit. It's not as bad as it sounds, most of the time.

-Back to the main point of my post. I hate having to wait and wait and wait for the damned train to come. I hate not knowing what time the shuttles will come. And I hate having to rely on somebody else for a damned ride home (or anywhere).



<!--EDIT|amietron|Sep 5 2002, 03:10 PM-->

[Chris]

Let see dealt with mentally chanlleged people who yell all the time on the bus.

People who is drunk on bus who can't shut their trapped. But 97% of the time it been pretty quiet. :)

[johnny]

Originally posted by karizma@Sep 5 2002, 10:57 PM
hah...there are many +'s to being a manipulative chick
oh no i try to stay away from those manipulative ones...

they "heart me" ;)

[kimpossible]

What I hate is that slightly moist/slightly sticky people funk that accumulates on all mass trans surfaces. I hate coming in contact with it, I hate that my clothes are actually touching it and I hate smelling it.

[princess]

public transportation sucks. i had to take it starting in 9th and up till last year. there are so many little bad incidents that just made it not worth it. the last time i was on the bus, this guy boards and sits right next to me. i was the only person on the bus btw. and he started bothering me...and making all these sexual comments. freaked me out, so i ran off the bus. i swore never to ride it again and ive kept to that.

[kasia]

karizma, i wouldn't complain because the public transportation up north is *so* much better than in los angeles. first of all, they don't really have BART. they have the metro, but it only stretches basically through downtown. people in the suburbs can only get into the city by taking a cab. bus system sucks. there aren't nearly as many stops--i live in the city and there are none by my house. basically, one cannot live without a car in l.a. in s.f., it's doable.

[angel nympho]

I've never been on a bus. :rolleyes:

[deez nuts]

I wonder if public transportation in Cali is worse or better than NY.

Because I heard some gully ass stories coming out of Cali from friends.

[karizma]

>> *shrug* my bro liked it better in NY than he did here in cali...

>> i remember this one time there were HELLA open seats everywhere but this mexican guy with a baby chooses to occupy the one next to me...and i see him eyeing me up n down oh..soo..nasty...he keeps shifting the baby around and next thing yknow the baby is face down on his lap and its head is on my leg en im thinking...dude get that thing off me man...not that i dont like kids or anything its just kinda wierd having some strange baby drooling all over ur thigh while the guy just sits there watching the baby flop all over the place.

[angel nympho]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Sep 8 2002, 07:21 AM
I wonder if public transportation in Cali is worse or better than NY.

Because I heard some gully ass stories coming out of Cali from friends.
I think it's better in NY... in NY isn't it a pretty normal thing not to have a car? In Cali you MUST have a car. Public transportation is one of those last resort things nobody EVER wants to use.

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by karizma@Sep 8 2002, 02:32 AM


>> i remember this one time there were HELLA open seats everywhere but this mexican guy with a baby chooses to occupy the one next to me...and i see him eyeing me up n down oh..soo..nasty...he keeps shifting the baby around and next thing yknow the baby is face down on his lap and its head is on my leg en im thinking...dude get that thing off me man...not that i dont like kids or anything its just kinda wierd having some strange baby drooling all over ur thigh while the guy just sits there watching the baby flop all over the place.
He's looking for a momma for his baby!

[karizma]

>> should i refer him to you, bunboy?

[deez nuts]

Originally posted by karizma@Sep 8 2002, 12:15 PM
>> should i refer him to you, bunboy?
Sure. I can use some extra heads as dependents for tax reasons.

[raacluse]

Fortunately, any weird experiences I've had on public transportation have been few and far between.

Recently visited Boston/cambridge. Got around by the T. Realized that the bigger, better rolling stock like the trains on the Red line remind me of the Toronto subway or the S-bahn trains in Germany.

I've also ridden BART & Muni (+ AC transit buses), the DC metro (subway & bus), Chicago (mostly subway), NY subway & bus, Philly subway, Phoenix bus, and SLC bus & light rail.

BTW, there's talk of trying to bring a maglev train to run between DC and Baltimore.but at a proposed fare of $25 I don't think you could quite call that public transportation.
This kind of train is supposed to be up and running next Spring in Shanghai (airport to downtown). :ph34r:

[kimpossible]

Originally posted by Chasiubao_Boy@Sep 8 2002, 08:51 AM
Originally posted by karizma@Sep 8 2002, 02:32 AM


>> i remember this one time there were HELLA open seats everywhere but this mexican guy with a baby chooses to occupy the one next to me...and i see him eyeing me up n down oh..soo..nasty...he keeps shifting the baby around and next thing yknow the baby is face down on his lap and its head is on my leg en im thinking...dude get that thing off me man...not that i dont like kids or anything its just kinda wierd having some strange baby drooling all over ur thigh while the guy just sits there watching the baby flop all over the place.

maybe the baby was hungry...

[karizma]

>> another gripe about public trans....waiting at the stops...i get hit on its so fricken stupid...one guy saw me from across the street while driving...went around back...parked...sat on the bench beside me and started hitting on me..."id give you a ride but you probably dont accept rides from strangers...right? *looks hopeful*" needless to say i shooed him away...another time this guy with a shiny black corvette drives by...of course im oogling his car...he thinks im checking him out and proceeds to ask if i want a ride....i look away and he screeches off in anger...pshh..

[ren28]

MUNI (SF public transportation) is ass. I have not taken it in quite a few years. I'd rather walk/jog 5-10 miles than take MUNI.

[Faithless]

Originally posted by ren28@Sep 12 2002, 02:26 AM
MUNI (SF public transportation) is ass. I have not taken it in quite a few years. I'd rather walk/jog 5-10 miles than take MUNI.
Up California?

Depends on where, I guess. AC Transit is a good bus system, when it runs on time. BART is confortable when you can get a seat.

Although, lately, I have heard the new term for BART is the flue mobile. :(

[kayla]

I had to take the los angeles metro last summer for summer school to my local community college. Anyways, so i was sitting on the bus and this guy walks in and sits next to me. He proceeds to make converstion and asks me if I was going to school etc. I didn't want really want to talk to him or anyone, for that matter, so i just gave him short, rough answers. And then he asks me if I believed in God. I told him I was born into a Buddhist family and he starts preaching to me about God for 45 whole minutes. Personally, I tohught that was kinda rude since I obviously didn't ask to be preached to. And I was sitting on the seat closer to the window so there was pretty much no escape until I reached my stop.

And there was this other time where an overweight woman sat next to me and took up A LOT of space. I felt so uncomfortable since she practically took up half of my seat. And to top if all off, the bus didn't have airconditioning and the heat can be unbearable during the summer in Pasadena.

And sometimes people and look and SMELL like they havent showered in weeks and end up sitting in front of you.

[coagulated fat]

One guy on the bus had a Kermit the Frog puppet and was attempting to use it as a phone. He had a long conversation with Mr. President on that thing. Quite an imagination, yes.

Overheard: "So... in a mirror, you look at your left eye with your right eye and your right eye with your left eye and you say these words -- something something and the darkness shall OVERCOME"
I want to try that.

On the other hand, I met this sweet and probably homeless lady. She asked me all these questions like "Where are you from? Where do you go to school?" I felt horrible answering knowing what her life must be like in comparison to mine and I felt like a spoiled shit for the rest of the day. Definitely put things in perspective though.

[AngryABCGirl]

Originally posted by kasia@Sep 7 2002, 07:31 PM
karizma, i wouldn't complain because the public transportation up north is *so* much better than in los angeles. first of all, they don't really have BART. they have the metro, but it only stretches basically through downtown. people in the suburbs can only get into the city by taking a cab. bus system sucks. there aren't nearly as many stops--i live in the city and there are none by my house. basically, one cannot live without a car in l.a. in s.f., it's doable.
yeah the Bart and bus system in SF absoletely amazes me. So does the T and bus systems in Boston and the rest of the East Coast. You can literally starve to death in LA without a car, which is why so many of us drive pieces of metal that are about to fall apart. The bus system comes when it feels like it every three hours and doesn't go anywhere useful, and the metro moves in one line.

[Fireblade]

Bleh... living in S.F. has spoiled me into riding buses most of the time. Now that I'm up in Sacramento, it's not quite as doable, but still possible. Reasons why I wouldn't want to do public transportation, is if it's unreliable, and time consuming. In S.F. chances are, you can get where you want within half an hour if you live right by a main bus line. Otherwise you're outta luck.

As for bad stories from riding on buses... Yea. I've got plenty. Almost got stabbed once. Got followed home a couple of times. Had a gang who thought I was someone else jump me.... shit like that. But I still ride it, cuz you have to kinda see what time during the day you ride it. If it's like the early afternoon, you're usually fine. If it's like 1am in the morning, that's a different story.

Oh, and the thing that annoys me the most, is when old people EXPECT you to get out of your seat and give it to them. When you're at like the waaaay back of the bus. Wtf lady.... go sit up in the front, it's what the seats are for. My 50 lb. bag of textbooks ain't moving for your ass. :pissed:

[SunWuKong]

this is making me miss HK. public transportation there is great. there's absolutely no need to have a car. in fact, a car there is usually more of a burden than it's worth, unless you're pretty well off.

[Faithless]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jun 8 2003, 04:39 PM
this is making me miss HK. public transportation there is great. there's absolutely no need to have a car. in fact, a car there is usually more of a burden than it's worth, unless you're pretty well off.
What about all the bike riders? Or is that elsewhere in China?

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by SunWuKung@Jun 8 2003, 07:39 PM
this is making me miss HK. public transportation there is great. there's absolutely no need to have a car. in fact, a car there is usually more of a burden than it's worth, unless you're pretty well off.
hehe, yeah, and it's nice and cheap ... especially if you are illegally using a student octopus :lol:

That's what annoyed the hell outta me in Japan. The public transit system is even nicer than Hong Kong (well, subway and trains are about the same, but the buses are nicer, I'd say ... or at least they were. HK buses now actually announce each stop, so I guess it's about the same quality of service now. Except that Japanese bus drivers are much more polite and actually try to help you out when you leave stuff on their bus), except it's like 5x as much.

I took a 5 day trip to Japan just before Christmas and I ended up spending like $80 on transportation. And I never even took a cab ... bus from airport, trains around Tokyo, bus back to airport. Fortunately my friends were paying for everything else or I would have gone broke.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by ChottoMatte@Jun 8 2003, 08:24 PM
What about all the bike riders? Or is that elsewhere in China?
no one really rides a bike in HK. Not worth the effort ... too many hills. And in the flat parts you'd be better off walking cuz there are so many people. Vietnam, Malaysia, and the mainland still have lots of people riding bikes, though.

[SunWuKong]

Originally posted by AliBabaIncorporated@Jun 8 2003, 09:35 PM
hehe, yeah, and it's nice and cheap ... especially if you are illegally using a student octopus :lol:
hah! :lol:

i saw a recent Twins movie where a Twin plugged this MP3 player into this machine at an MTR stop and scanned her octopus card and the machine put songs into her MP3 player.

and i always say, once you've mastered mini-buses, you're well on your way to becoming localised.

[tvbdude]

bostons public transportation is pretty tolerable

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Originally posted by tvbdude@Jun 8 2003, 11:36 PM
bostons public transportation is pretty tolerable
Subway is great. A lot more useful than BART. But the commuter rail lines out to all the little towns dump you off in these ill-defined "town center" areas with a bunch of useless shops, miles away from the large corporate parks containing companies you'd actually need to, uh, commute to, which tend to cluster around Route 90 regardless of what town they claim to be in. As I have found out when interviewing without a car ...

[maxdacat]

London is ok,

i just moved to a place and i am within walking distance of 5 different train station all on different lines plus a couple of bus lines thrown in as well....but definitely miss having a car and just being able to jump in and go anywhere you want ;)

[Elizabeth A.]

Two bucks for the subway.

The MTA is going to make me go broke very soon. Losers. :angry:

[nonamerasian]

I don't think public transportation is too bad.

I hate when “sitters” on the trains see people standing and they continue to sit with their legs wide open, taking up a seat and a half.

So that’s when "wedgers," like me, become useful. I’m that annoying person who will sometimes wedge her way between the two selfish sitters with their legs opened wide.

Those sitters are my only persistent qualm at the moment.

[moJo]

i can't stand buses. i took the bus for the first time, 2 weeks ago, in who knows how long. i got so nauseous when i got off that thing. riding a bus over SF hills, with the stopping, then starting, then stopping, then starting...not fun. i take BART (subway) to work every morning. it's tolerable, i suppose. no nausea, and there are less crazies on BART.

but i would much prefer driving. i did that for a week before, but at $9/day for parking as well as traffic, it's not really worth it.

[kboy75]

Public transportation in NYC is probably the best in the USA. It's so extensive. You can get anywhere you want via train and bus in NYC. And it's only $2 (was $1.50 til last year) flat rate. You do not need a car at all if you live in Manhattan.

In the San Francisco bay area, I used to take AC Transit bus, Contra Costa Transit bus, and the BART all the time, my first couple years of college. It is great if you live near a BART station. The MUNI, I've taken for work. It's OK, once you get the hang of the lines. I don't like how it is not all one centralized system (like NYC where you can use one metro card for rail or bus). But yeah, you can survive w/o a car if you live near a BART station or a bus that will take you there. I had a car, but used BART/bus/MUNI for when I had projects in the city or when I went to games at the Oakland Coliseum and such. One thing bad about BART is that it is not a flat fare. You pay for how much distance you travel. That sucks.

DC Metro is similar to BART. Same trains, tickets and trunstiles. But it is newer and the stations are nicer than the BART stations. Pretty great if you live/work/go to school in the immediate DC metropolitan area.

Sydney has a really great and CLEAN train system. I think because of the 2000 Olympics, they redid everything to be easy and rider friendly. Nice double decker trains and pretty extensive.

Seoul also has a great subway system.

LA... No, you need a car, period.

[ChinaLama]

public transportation in manhattan's great but it's not as great in some parts of the outer boroughs. for instance, there's only ONE subway line that directly connects Queens and Brooklyn, even though they are geographically right next to each other. Most other train lines connect to Brooklyn from Manhattan.