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1. I live on a very steep -- intimidatingly, scarily steep -- hill. It's not too bad walking downhill to the nearest public transit station, but walking up the hill to get home is exhausting, even though I'm in good health and work out four times a week. My husband is 71 with a bad heart and not in good shape, so for him it's out of the question. We only take public transit if we can park near the bus stop or light rail station, or if one of us can drop off/pick up the other.
2. The same trip that would take 20 minutes in a car takes an hour on the bus. If you have a time-sensitive appointment, you can't rely on getting there in time because there is always the chance of a mechanical breakdown/electrical problem, etc. that could delay you even more.
3. If I have a short errand, sometimes it is cheaper to pay the garage rate than to pay $2 each way to ride public transit.
4. If I am shopping for heavy or bulky items, it's really inconvenient, if not impossible, to carry them on public transit as I am only 5' 2".
5. I don't feel guilty about driving when I need to because I don't drive that much. My car is a '93, and it only has 87,000 miles on it. That's an average of less than 5,000 a year.
Now, it doesn't go where I need when I need... hard to imagine one that would considering. When I lived in Seattle, I used in occasionally mostly because it WAS a waste of money. Pay $1.50 to get to work at most five minutes sooner or stop and buy a cup of coffee at Bauhaus on the way? Buck fifty to get a mile barely faster than walking when I have to walk near on half of it anyway? Meh. I used it when I went to Fremont/U District. Usually rented a car when I HAD to go to the Eastside...
Public transportation is a worthless sham. I don't want to ride on any form of transportation in which there are other people touching me, looking at me, talking to me, or harrassing me. I need my space and I don't need anyone disturbing my chi. I selected "I prefer using my car" from the three poll choices.
My number one reason would have to be avoiding the strange people who use transit. Anyone who can scrape together some change can ride transit. That means you literally have throngs of extremely mentally unstable people, ghetto folks cursing and spraypainting everything, slovenly and musty homeless people, violent criminals, predators just waiting to attack, out of control children screaming and laughing, angry and underpaid transit workers just waiting for a reason to snap, and more all in the same vehicle at the same time.
On top of that my car is faster and I have more flexibility in going where I want to go when I want to go there.
I live 4 1/2 miles from work. It takes 10-12 min. to drive, portal to portal. I wouldn't be able to even come close to that time w/public transport. I also work screwy hours (basically no exact cut-off time), so that makes planning for public transit, which is on a schedule, hard.
I voted service is poor because I don't know any bus that goes 85-90mph.
[plus I like to nap in my truck during lunchtime]
Ignoring highways, I doubt I can average much above 35 mph on local roads. Can you drive at 85-90 mph?
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