by Andrea Reasoner

Created on: September 23, 2010

When public transportation is available and easy to use, then people are much more likely to use it rather than drive a car.  Why is this a good thing?  For one, cars are expensive!  If you don’t need to drive anywhere, then you don’t need to worry about parking, tickets, oil changes, gas money, maintenance, annual stickers, or any other little thing that pops up when you own a vehicle.  Public transit is a much, much cheaper option. Then you could use that extra money for things that you really want to do rather than keeping up with a piece of machinery.  Why not save up for a nice vacation or live in a nicer neighborhood?   This would be much more feasible if you weren’t shelling out hundreds of dollars a month for a car.

Just imagine if you were able to take public transit to work every day.  You would not have to deal with traffic or finding parking or even digging your car out from underneath the snow.  All you have to do is get on the bus or the train and let someone else take you there.  You could even get some work done while you are in transit.  Or read a book.  Or get a little more sleep.  Or . . . you get the idea.  It would be much less stressful and maybe even more productive!

If that isn’t enough for you, then how about being able to go out on the town and not having to worry about driving home later?  There would be no need for a designated driver so you could all live it up.  And if you aren’t driving, then you definitely won’t get a DUI or risk anyone’s life by driving while intoxicated.  Let public transit take care of you and get you all home safely!   

Then there is the environmental impact of having fewer cars on the road.  Without all of those extra exhaust fumes in the air, we could all breathe a little easier.  Every single person that takes public transit means one less car on the road.  One car may not make a huge difference, but there is never just one person on a bus.  It really adds up!  If every city had a good public transportation system, then we could be making a huge difference in our world’s pollution levels.

In short, having a good public transportation system available is very beneficial.  People would not be so tied down by their vehicles, there would be fewer accidents, and our environment would not be so polluted.  It’s really too bad that most of the public transit systems in the US were dismantled in favor of more roads and more cars.  We would all be much better off if they had just  remained in place.

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