Another Reason to Live in NYC
Photo from www.livingpictures.org
I just got back from a week in Seattle. I enjoyed the city, which has a great vibe and many nice people. But I was glad to come home, since NYC has something that Seattle has never had and maybe never will…a good public transportation system.
The only real public transportation there are the buses (the monorail really doesn’t count). And the buses run every half hour - at rush hour. True, in downtown, all the buses are free. But I was commuting from downtown to Fremont (which isn’t that far, but too far to walk), and ended up spending a lot of time waiting for buses. Plus, the bus line I needed stopped running at 7 pm! I find it odd that in a city of environmentalists, the easiest way to commute is by car.
Anyway, it reminded me how lucky I am to live in a city whose public transportation system never sleeps.
I know what you mean about the irony of the “environmentally-conscious” cities not having good public transportation. I live in a similar Pacific NW city where gas-guzzling SUVs are more prevalent than fuel-efficient compacts or hybrids. It’s a bit the fault that there is more room to work with in the west than in NYC or Canadian counterpart, Toronto. I also love how in truly big cities, the stigma of taking public transit is gone. (Though that doesn’t hold true in L.A., only poor blokes and bewildered tourists ride the bus!)