I adore the bus. I hate driving, and the bus is more comfortable than my car anyway (the air conditioning actually works). If we had better transportation between cities in my area, and regular weekend service, I’d sell the car tomorrow; unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.
I’m kind of wondering if where you grow up has anything to do with your opinion on this.
I grew up in LA, where the public transportation was pretty crappy. You’d look at who was on the bus, and often you saw people who NEEDED to take the bus - maybe the couldn’t afford the car, whatever.
But I figure if you grow up in DC or some other area where public transport is critical and of decent quality, you’ll see that all sorts use it. Hence, no stigma.
So yeah, I’d feel like a chump taking the bus. But since I’ve seen train/subway systems in other cities, my attitudes are slowly changing when I see that it can be a valuable way to get around.
I moved to the Bay Area for college and it was 7 years before I owned a car. BART and buses were my friends and I never had a problem.
There’s no public transit to my work, though, so I’m in the car constantly now; I usually do errands on my way back from work so I rarely use public transit. Still, whenever my wife and I have a number of things to do in the city (non-shopping related), we take public transit, although she has a strange aversion to the buses. She doesn’t like riding on them, though she can’t pinpoint why; maybe the personalities, though she’s also bad at figuring out where to get off which is why she won’t take the bus at all if I’m not with her. I’m always worried that bus fares have increased between trips, though, so we won’t have enough, correct change, etc.
I gotta agree with k2dave- buses suck, trains/rail are much better. In DC, the two are polar opposites- Metro is clean and fairly efficient, buses smell, break down, and don’t strictly adhere to the schedule.
The $100 is completely justified - with D.C., there are a lot of suburbs that are quite a distance from downtown, and it can get extremely expensive even to take the train in. In fact, we also get up to $100 a month in Metrocheks, and not only do I need to take all $100, I have to add in another $32 or so monthly. Yep, it costs me about $132 a month to take the train, not to mention the cost of gas to drive to the train. 
They also charge you to park in the train-station lots.
All that said, I’d never give up taking the train so that I could drive all the way in to work. For one thing, there’s no parking. Okay, there’s some, but it’s sparse and always full. (D.C. seems to be unlike most major cities, which seemingly have parking every few blocks.) Also, the traffic here is among the worst in the country, particularly on the Capital Beltway, which most people need to use to get to work. So it takes a lot, lot less time to take the train, not to mention the hassle and stress (which still exist, but are lessened).
And, quite frankly, D.C.'s Metro system is among the greatest in the world. Easy to get on and off, reasonably clean, easy to find things, and so forth.
I live in New Jersey and work in Manhattan – I’d be insane if I didn’t take the bus.
I ride with nice, professional people, all going to work; my bus is generally on time; and I’m very happy zipping into the city in the bus lane as several thousand idiots, all sitting alone in their cars, wait in traffic.
There was a comedian on Conan last night who talked about this. Something along the lines of: “Do you ever get the feeling that a public bus is like a garbage truck for people? Really, we all think we are better than everyone else. For instance, I’m looking at the guy across from me wearing the Santa hat and goggles, and thinking ‘holy crap’, while at the same time, he’s probably thinking ‘poor guy, doesn’t have any goggles.’” 
Seriously though, I don’t mind riding the bus because of any stigma that may be attached. What I don’t like is the schedule, the buses don’t run often enough during the day here, to make taking them convenient. I took the bus for years and either had to show up at work an hour early or 5 minutes late, and still had roughly 3/4 of a mile to walk from the stop to work. The year I finally got my license, was after a particularly bad winter of trudging in snow.
Buses are great for short trips and when they go reasonably near to where you need to be. I live near UCLA and, oddly enough, the Santa Monica bus system provides better transportation to it than the Los Angeles system. It only takes me about 20 minutes on one bus to get to UCLA, so I’ll gladly do that rather than pay for parking. Longer bus trips are another thing entirely, and in L.A. you usually will see only the poor enduring them.
I used to take the train to work every day; walking a mile to the station, a twenty-minute journey, then another mile at the other end (and of course the reverse on the way home) It was great - the walking kept me fit and there was always something to see (foxes, deer, birds, a new tree in bloom) plus I got to read a book on the train.
I arrived at work invigorated and ready to face the day, having avoided the stress of sitting in a traffic jam or being cut up on the motorway.
Somewhat sadly, I now work closer to home and have a company car, so I seldom get the train now, but it seems like a treat when I do.
I like Neil the bus driver. Everyone likes Neil. He’s got good tattoos.
There’s a Flanders and Swann song called “A Transport of Delight” about buses. It’s very funny.
I live in Toronto. In spite of the required Torontonian complaining, we have a very good public transport system- and a lot of insane taxi drivers. I’d much rather be in a bus or on a subway than driving.