• Aeri@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Actual American public transit is when you ask it for public transit directions and your phone shoots you with a small caliber bullet

  • bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    I almost had jury duty a while back so I thought I might take public transit to that. Car trip is 25-30 minutes. Public is 2.5 hours and I would arrive 45 minutes before the courthouse opened.

  • frog@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    Living in NYC, I had to go to downtown from uptown everyday.

    Train: under 20 minutes.

    Bus: over an hour.

    The cool thing was I could use the same MetroCard for both. Sometimes I would take the bus because the scenery is nice to look at, or I wanted to read a book.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      The cool thing was I could use the same MetroCard for both

      Has this not been a thing for like 60 years practically everywhere?

      RIP cities that don’t have this.

      In conclusion, I approve of your lifestyle

  • Bangs42@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    If you look on Google Maps, there’s this super convenient line of trees that goes from the next large city north-ish of my town to the largest city in the state, south of me. It runs right through my town. If you go looking in that line of trees, you’ll find abandoned train tracks.

    There was a day when someone (not me, I’m not that old) could get on a train in my town and go to virtually any medium to large city. Now, we can’t even get funding to connect the walking trail segments that parallel portions of those abandoned tracks between towns.

  • BambiDiego@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Not one.

    Not a single one of you is gonna acknowledge the artistry that is the username “beemovieerotica”?

  • marcos@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I live about 30 minutes walking from my workplace, that usually takes about 15 minutes by car (20 at rush hour).

    It takes more than 90 minutes to get there by bus.

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Huh. My office is about 30 minutes walking too, but 5 minutes drive and about 15 by bus (only because there are literally 3 different routes that happen to run between a couple blocks from my house to a block from my work, so the fucking half hour frequency doesn’t apply - I specifically live near bus lines always but they slashed the frequency) . I actually bike in every day unless it’s raining.

      • marcos@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        so the fucking half hour frequency doesn’t apply

        No, you misunderstood.

        If I decide to go by bus, it will take more than 90 minutes of travel time. The wait time isn’t counted there. (I would need to take 2 buses, one is hourly, the other one is frequent.)

        Before I started working from home, I used to walk.

        • RBWells@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Ah. For me the most direct possible route has car road, buses (yes three of them, and oddly, this only happens in a couple of places and home to work is one of them) and sidewalks, and the roads are 35mph ones so if pedestrians are on the sidewalk I take the bike in the road, if it’s clear I take the sidewalk.

          Our old location, it was different - there was a way to walk between my kids school and the office, but no safe bike route and car had to go on the highway and loop around, the road didn’t exist, and house to work no way but car, it had a bus stop but only the bus to the next city passed it, and that one you have to board in downtown so I know what you are talking about. Even with the express bus between downtown and work it would have taken a couple of hours. And driving took between 10 minutes and 50 minutes depending on traffic (bus subject to same traffic) So glad they moved into the city.

  • AmericanEconomicThinkTank@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    That’s actually quite the improvement. I remember back when I had the lovely choice between an actual hourly train that would take you within a literal days walk of your destination with the entire route having the constant risk of you being run over, the local bus route which requried switching three busses even to leave town, with another 5 or 6 easily to reach close walking distance to where you’d be going the next town over, or the good old fashioned route of just driving there which took a good hour and a half if you were going anywhere important and had the added bonus of constant risk of being run off the road from our local drivers.

    To be fair these days it’s a lot better, the bus route only takes three swaps at worst, and the bus drivers only ocasionally start driving like they are formula 1 racers on their way to take a pit stop in the middle of goddamn nowhere.

  • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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    5 days ago

    I was in the US with my sister. Didn’t know whether the bus to get us to town would pass as it was already sunsetting (yes, it did pass we later figured out) as the trip was a couple hours long. One guy stops with his big truck towing a boat and picks us up. Apparently he did not figure out we were hitching, he thought we were waiting for the bus and was afraid for us. Apparently the previous day he had taken the bus for the first time in his 65 years of life and that was one of the most traumatizing experiences in his life. He figured we should not go through the same pains he had to go through…

    But yes, American public transport is terrible. While travelling I had decided not to rent a car. I ended up having to make friends with people travelling with cars so that I could go around with them.

  • gamenac@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Living in a bigger Florida city for a while, I realized the bus system was not for me. Besides way less than stellar routing to get from point A to point 1 to point H to point L to point B, they changed how they handled pricing more than a few times while I was there. Add the fact that even by car you’re looking at about 30 minutes time, and who knows how long for the bus, made me a diehard cyclist. Most trips were comparable to driving with the added benefits that cycling has. Unfortunately there is almost no incentive for cities to upgrade public transport that enough people will get behind, even if it makes the most sense.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I used to bike to work when I lived in Louisiana. It was fortunate that my office was a block from the YMCA, so I could shower and change after my ride in. The downside was that the Y was the hangout of the fat old white men who worked at the courthouse and liked to lounge around naked on the couches in the locker room, laughing and making jokes about sending black men to Angola prison for decades for crimes they probably didn’t commit (these were judges, prosecutors and public defenders talking about this shit).

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Yeah that’s where I am, and with some exceptions (there has been a one-bus route to the university at all my residences, like walk a few blocks, get on a bus, relax, end of the line is the school) it’s so difficult to use the bus system, one transfer and you are hosed. If I had a magic wand, I’d reinstate the trolley lines to their original farthest reach plus stadium and business districts, make all buses run every 15 minutes (the routes are reasonable) and make it all fare free, or an easy and cheap subscription, wave phone or ticket.

  • ranzispa@mander.xyz
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    5 days ago

    I love public transport, it is basically the only form of transport I use. I do occasionally drive a car, maybe once or twice a year. That said, I really prefer not to need transport in my day to day life.

    I live in a city in Spain. It is an important city, but it is not very large. I walk to work in 20 minutes. From work I walk to the city centre 15 minutes. From the city centre I walk to the woods outside town in 15 minutes. It’s not even worth it to wait for the bus to arrive…

  • NeedyPlatter@lemmy.ca
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    6 days ago

    Jokes on you the GTA 's (Greater Toronto areas) public transit system is like this too! 🤩 I hate it here

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I mean…to be fair, the people I’ve met from Toronto are always the most selfish self entitled main character syndrome assholes I run into. It’s like Canadas version of Chicago. I’m honestly surprised Toronto doesn’t have some common food that they try to be “famous” for. Chicago deep dish isn’t pizza, it’s lasagna cosplaying as pizza. I could eat pizza every day. I could only eat Chicago style once a year or so.

      • Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        What’s wrong with Chicago? I moved to the area a year ago and everyone is pretty nice…

        If you have a complaint about Chicagoan food, I think Jepsons Mallort is a bigger complaint than deep dish.

        I don’t know how you can compare deep dish, a style of pizza, to lasagna. They are much different…

    • BlackVenom@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Torontos system def needs work, but it’s by far better than most. Presumably it really falls apart outside of downtown though. Driving is for sure hell… You’d think it’d be easier to at least convince people to bump public trans to make room on the expressway.