I’m carless and live in the DC area. Mass transit can get annoying sometimes, because it does limit your mobility (and I’m praying for that Purple line out to Dulles and Tyson’s Corner), but it’s cheaper than having a car out here, and I don’t really want to face DC traffic. It takes me about 50 min. to get to work in the morning, and who knows how long it would take if I had to face DC traffic.
I live in Los Angeles and cannot drive. Honestly, sometimes I’m better off crawling.
I’ve been in the DC area since the summer of '88 and didn’t buy my first car until last summer. The bus and metro system is great, but doesn’t go everywhere. Two buses get me to work in less than an hour; I could drive it in less time but there’s no way I’m going to spend $90 a month to park here!
Do people actually use mass transit?
Every day of my life.
I’m a San Franciscan (and former Sacramentan and Bostonian) who has never owned a car and is rarely even a passenger in one. (Which explains why I always have so much trouble getting the stupid doors open, and then forget to lock my side when I get out, etc., etc…)
I have never had a problem getting everywhere I wanted to go by public transportation. Within San Francisco there are a multiplicity of mass transit options (buses, within city subway, commuter rail (BART), cable cars), all of which I use on a regular basis. I’m also not afraid to walk five or ten or twenty-seven blocks to get where I need to be.
As far as making purchases, I carry my own large, comfortable shoulder bags for grocery shopping (I usually walk five or six blocks). I don’t buy much that is too large for me to carry. On my recent furniture-shopping spree, I had almost everything delivered, except for my coffee table, which I carried about four blocks to my house by myself. Oh, and the free dresser I found on the street – a passerby offered to help me carry it home.
The extra cost of very infrequently having something delivered is more than covered by the savings of not having a car. Whenever people ask me how I can survive without a car, I point out that I have no car payments, no parking problems (a major, major issue in San Francisco), no insurance payments, I never have to worry about gas prices, I never get into accidents, my car is never stolen, I don’t need an apartment with a garage, I never get tickets, and I’m never stuck in traffic.
I’ve also gone on vacation without a car, and invariably I’ve found that it is possible to get around without one despite what guidebooks and car owners might tell you.
I know that there are places where living without a car might not be possible, but my experiences have all been great. I don’t see using public transportation as an inconvenience, it’s just the way I’ve always lived.
And to answer the question that I’m inevitably asked when I get into this discussion, yes, I do have a current driver’s license.
I live in los angeles, and went two years with out a car. Our public transit is pretty bad, but I managed okay. My job was a 10 minute bus ride, then a 4 mile walk home (but it was down main street in Santa Monica, so I didn’t mind). I was in pretty good shape at the end of it.
When I stuck to the west side, it wasn’t bad. A few times it was exciting - trying to get home from the New Beverly Cinema was exciting.
I ride a motorcycle for transportation most of the time. During raining days its the 33 line back and forth to work - but it still requires lots of walking.
I liked taking the red line out of town, but it took something like 2 hours to get the 15 miles from where I lived to Union Station.
Every day. I live in Chicago, and take the El to work downtown. I don’t know how to drive, though (I’m 25, by the way), so it’s kind of what I have to do. But truth be told, I sort of like it this way. Chicago’s not like Manhattan in that it is possible to make a quick drive anyplace but downtown without encountering significant traffic, but all the same, I’ve always lived close to the major necessities, and everything else is relatively easy to get to via bus/bike/cab. (Then again, I bum rides a lot from my folks.) Grocery shopping and the like is a challenge - Peapod helped scads in that regard. Anyhoo, my son and I lived in Quincy, MA (just outside of Boston) for a year and a half and that was a little bit tougher - but still, their T system is generally reliable, and my son’s daycare center was within walking distance. Only problem with depending on public transit is that one delay can cause everything to go down the crapper. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen often, and best of all, I frequently get an extra half-hour of sleep on the ride to and from work, plus the exercise of walking to/from the train. I actually credit not driving with keeping me from gaining weight since my pregnancy seven years ago.
We definitely do in NYC. Parking is at a premium, and traffic into and out of Manhattan is limited to fewer than 10 bridges and tunnels, making any car commute a serious nightmare.
What I meant was that public transportation is a hard-sell in smaller cities. Springfield, IL, in my example, has a population of about 115,000 + change. If we were to have a bus system as convenient as, say, Chicago’s, the city would have to invest billions into new buses, garages, drivers, stations, etc. and even then it’s going to be hit-or-miss on whether or not people will ride it. That’s what I meant. That’s why I maintain that public transit only works in larger cities.
Here in Seattle, the transit system is good, but not great. They’re still arguing about how to best fix the traffic problem – light rail and/or monorail; but I doubt we see it happen anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the buses work quite well and a bus pass (even at $72 a month for out-of-city travel) is cheaper than a car. Plus, a lot of employers (including mine) subsidize part or all of the cost. Yes, you have to be patient, especially if you’ve just missed one and it will be half an hour before the next one arrives. But it’s better than sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
One issue which has not been addressed is: What about those people (such as Spouse, who has epilepsy) who for whatever reason CAN’T drive? How do they deal, especially in smaller areas where transit doesn’t exist?
No. Bleah.
Public transportation in Baltimore is uncool.
I just recently learned to drive (it terrified me); and it was largely because I was soooo sick of taking buses and Light Rail, and relying on other people to get me places.
(Okay, Light Rail is okay if you have to get to the ballpark or Antique Row, but in my opinion, it sucks for serious commuting.)
Buses were the worst. Gross, dirty, slow, unreliable, and I couldn’t wear clothing or jewelry that was too nice for fear of being hit on and/or robbed.
And I will tell you now: A bus stop in February, in Baltimore, is an evil place.
I guess the turning point for me was finally being more scared of the MTA Nightmare than the Jones Falls Expressway.
I believe the New York City subway system has 1.2 billion riders per year (so the average person in the US uses the NYC subway 4 times a year, if you want to take statistics out of context). And it is only part of New York’s public transportation system. Probably at least as many again use the Long Island Railroad, the Staten Island Railroad, New Jersey Transit, the buses, the Staten Island Ferry, and the Metro North. Many people, including a friend of mine making over $150k, don’t have cars, because there is really nowhere to park them usually.
The IRT Lexington Ave. line serves the entire Upper East Side of Manhattan and a large portion of the Bronx, and is therefore quite uncomfortably crowded at rush hour. However, many of the relatively wealthy denizens of the Upper East Side use it every day. Someday, they’ll build the Second Avenue line. Really. (They’ve been promising that since 1921. In 1974, the MTA released a pamphlet hailing it as the “Line That Almost Never Was.” It still isn’t)
I use it every day, but it’s still a bad deal. If I had a better car, I’d give it up in a second. The hype they put out is also very mileading. They really only cater to tiny slivers of the community, and are only viable for the poor and those with a lot of time to kill.
They will brag that ridership is up, but it’s almost exclusively in NYC, and mainly due to better policing after work hours, so the “national trend” is hype.
Every morning, I rush to run out of my apartment to catch the 8.21am Montgomery County, Maryland Ride-On bus. This takes me to the Grosvenor Metro station, which I take the Red Line downtown to Farragut North.
Then, in the evening. I leave work at 6.45pm to catch the Red Line back up to Grosvenor so I can catch the last Ride-On bus of the evening at 7.15, to take my back to my apartment.
So, yes, I do. I don’t like driving in DC unless it’s on the weekends, or at night (and that depends).
Metro rules.
As others have pointed out, NYC’s mass transit system is not only used regularly, it is essential. Without the subways and buses, the streets would be impassable. Blimey, they’re bad enough as it is, if everyone tried to drive a car, the entire city would be at a standstill.
Living in the 'burbs as I do, a car is essential (especially as Mrs. Dave-Guy actually works on the other side of the Hudson River). But as I mentioned to Dr.Matrix at a Dopefest a couple of years ago, I can’t fathom why anyone living in New York City would even consider owning a car. It’s cheaper, easier and much less hassle to use the buses and trains. Cabs when absolutely necessary.
Count me as one of the NoVa folks who uses Metro. I live about a 10 minute walk from Braddock Road Metro here in Alexandria, and I find getting about with subway and bus pretty darn useful and a lot easier on the wallet than owning a car. I can hop on the Metro and be in downtown DC within 40 minutes, without the stress of having to watch out for insane Virginia drivers who have no idea how to use turn signals to change lanes. I do find it difficult not to be able to get to Herndon or Reston easily, which means I have to rule out getting jobs in the Dulles Corridor for now.
Of course, the Seoul Subway was a lot more useful, with 8 lines and an extensive bus system.
Another carless New Yorker, checking in. I moved here about a year ago from Rhode Island, where the public transporation is really lousy. I sold my car when I moved and I’ve never looked back.
Not having a car is the norm in NY, at least among my friends and acquaintances. When we order huge things, we get them delivered. And lugging beer or groceries, for example, is easy when the store is only a few blocks away. A friend of mine stops into the supermarket several times a week to buy that evening’s dinner ingredients. Or you can get groceries delivered. (You can get anything delivered). Plus, people eat out more.
To answer the second part of your question, in NY, you never really have to go too far out of your way because everything is all jammed together. 
I live in central Jersey, and use public transit all the time. I have a car, but use the trains for anything NYC related.
I also had a car when I lived in Pittsburgh. But I frequently used mass transit instead. As Medea’s Child pointed out, it was easy, cheap, and convenient.
I cant speak for other cities, but I know that Guelph and Hamilton, Ontario have decent bus systems, and a lot of people seem to rely on them, particularly students. Both are University towns, and as part of yout tuition, you pay a small fee (very small relative to the actual cost of a bus pass) and get free busing. In Guelph, busses tend to run on the half hour, while in certain parts of Hamilton they come through every 15 mins or so. I dont use the buses (commute from one city to the other and theres nothing but Go or Greyhound - not worth the $), but I know a lot of people who do, and they dont mind it too much.
Oh, please - try a bus stop in Chicago in February! We can get weeks on end of sub-zero temperatures, and I’m talking temperatures, not wind-chills.
I have a cousin who takes the El (the elevated trains in Chicago) almost everywhere if she can. To get to work, her boyfriend drives her. She’s 30 years old, and has never driven a car.
My best friend takes the El whenever she is going into the city. She works in the Loop, so she gets to work every day on public transportation.
I would like to take public transportation at least a few days a week. However, I have checked into it, and it doesn’t seem possible for me. I live in a southwest suburb (Brookfield) and work in a northwest suburb (Northbrook). IIRC, when I checked the routes, the Metra train only goes into the city in the morning, and out to the suburbs in the afternoon. (Someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Also, the route I would have to take would take forever to get me where I need to go. If I lived and worked right in the city, I would probably take the train and/or buses more often.