As someone that doesn’t have a car and uses coaches, public transit, or bicycles to get around, I’ve always found it ironic that people are willing to be stacked and piled into planes for hours but refuse to take a public bus ride for an hour. Planes are the only place where people can’t just take their car to go somewhere and really have to put up with all the BS of traveling with other people.
When I go visit my family and friends using public transit and it takes multiple hours, I sometimes fantasize that I could have gone to the airport and use the same amount of time to fly to a Caribbean island. People complain about planes but I’ve used public transit all my life so to me they’re just a tad worse than a packed public bus. At least planes have power and bathrooms, even if you have to climb over other people to use them.
I also love bike touring so sometimes instead of taking 2.5 hours to go visit my family using public transit, I use the greenways to cycle there, spend the night camping in a small provincial park, and finish the rest of the ride the next day. It usually takes about 7 hours of continuous cycling, without the pauses for rest/food and the overnight. I could rent a car and drive there in about 1.5 hour but then I wouldn’t spend a night there. It’s not always easy, but it’s usually much more rewarding.
I think that depends a lot on how available public transit is where you are.
I’d happily ride a bus for an hour except the bus lines near me would require 15 to 30 mins of driving, pay for parking, then wait for the line I want which only runs 2 or 3 times a day. OR I could drive direct.
Planes are the only time a lot of us can reasonably interface with public transit.
My FIL wanted to go eco for our last trip to visit my BIL and to get from Wilmington to Chicago there was literally ONE train per day that takes over 24 hours to arrive and it left at like 545am? It’s totally obnoxious.
As someone that doesn’t have a car and uses coaches, public transit, or bicycles to get around, I’ve always found it ironic that people are willing to be stacked and piled into planes for hours but refuse to take a public bus ride for an hour. Planes are the only place where people can’t just take their car to go somewhere and really have to put up with all the BS of traveling with other people.
When I go visit my family and friends using public transit and it takes multiple hours, I sometimes fantasize that I could have gone to the airport and use the same amount of time to fly to a Caribbean island. People complain about planes but I’ve used public transit all my life so to me they’re just a tad worse than a packed public bus. At least planes have power and bathrooms, even if you have to climb over other people to use them.
I also love bike touring so sometimes instead of taking 2.5 hours to go visit my family using public transit, I use the greenways to cycle there, spend the night camping in a small provincial park, and finish the rest of the ride the next day. It usually takes about 7 hours of continuous cycling, without the pauses for rest/food and the overnight. I could rent a car and drive there in about 1.5 hour but then I wouldn’t spend a night there. It’s not always easy, but it’s usually much more rewarding.
So yeah, it’s relative.
I think that depends a lot on how available public transit is where you are.
I’d happily ride a bus for an hour except the bus lines near me would require 15 to 30 mins of driving, pay for parking, then wait for the line I want which only runs 2 or 3 times a day. OR I could drive direct.
Planes are the only time a lot of us can reasonably interface with public transit.
My FIL wanted to go eco for our last trip to visit my BIL and to get from Wilmington to Chicago there was literally ONE train per day that takes over 24 hours to arrive and it left at like 545am? It’s totally obnoxious.