msbelle, do you have to move to Texas?

I enjoy traveling on subways in Boston and Washington, but a hellish Greyhound Bus ride back from New Orleans in the late 80s has conditioned me against ever regarding the bus as a good thing.

Yeah, long Greyhound trips are of the Devil.

Yeah, long Greyhound trips are of the Devil.

I always seemed to sit next to a parolee. Or a racist. Or a parolee racist.

My favorite mode of long-distance travel is by Amtrak. When I have a room to myself, so I can hide from people and/or nap when I feel like it.

That's assuming there are no major delays....

We are a one-car household- I very rarely drive. Public transportation (commuter train) to work and around Cambridge/Boston all day.

The commuter rail has its flaws, but I can nap or surf the internet while getting home! Also, Boston traffic is of the UBER-SUCK so I'm pretty pleased to not have to be a part of that.

I take the bus here too- I love the bus!

So... how long do you suppose this will work out? [link]

I always seemed to sit next to a parolee.

My last long Greyhound trip, the guy behind me was telling everyone how he was going back to LA to deal with murder charges. And he didn't say unequivocally that there wasn't a case against him. Still, it's one way not to get crowded on the bus.

I always preferred to take Amtrak from Milwaukee to home on college breaks over taking the bus. I'd usually get on the tail end of the Seattle-Chicago run (Milwaukee was the last stop before Union Station) at 3:30, and then Joliet would be the first stop on the Chicago-LA run (I'd be getting off just as they were on the PA describing all the fun stuff they'd be doing and seeing on the journey). It had a nice one-hour layover in Union Station, so I could stretch my legs some, and still be home by 7:00.

I've never owned a car and am quite happy about it. Given the cities I've lived in as an adult (DC, NY, Paris, and SF) that's not surprising, but I am proud that I managed 2 years on the Eastern Shore without one.

SF probably has the worst overall public transportation (in terms of civility, schedules, routes, time vs. distance, aesthetics) of those four, but it's still pretty good. And much cheaper.

Long bus rides are the absolute suck. I'm taking the train to Boston next month because I forgot to get a plane ticket in time for it to be cheap -- I splurged on the Acela up, so that should be nice....