[QUOTE=Dahon.Steve]>>>>None of our buses have bike racks, but you may be able to talk your bike inside during off-peak hours, as every bus has space

I was out in the cold and would have to wait (for a bus) for over an hour with no places nearby to keep warm..
The bus driver did not let me board under similiar conditions. Other drivers in the past had let me board. Not when I really needed a bus on a cold dark night.
I had come from Christmas shopping and my panniers were full..Felt sort of like the 'Three Wise Men,' trying to just get home.

Now that Atlanta has bike racks on every bus (sometimes they fall down on this one, but they try to keep them maintained on every bus) you can literally conquer the city's auto-centric design with a bike and a $55 monthly MARTA pass. All that remains now is for people to overcome the fear of riding a bike in traffic.

Shoot, $55 won't get me a month's worth of parking! It will, however, get me a month's worth of parking at MARTA train stations.

But I still prefer just pure-and-simple biking over bike-and-transit, except that the I still haven't conquered the commuting distances sufficiently to go car-free (150 miles per week, not including shopping.) I guess I just don't discipline myself enough yet, but someday...

In Los Ageles County they have a light rails connecting Pasadena, Long Beach, and North Hollwood with down town Los Angeles California. When I recently rode these lines I was surprised to see biker wheeling their bikes on board and standing next to them at the end of the compartment. It looks a little dangerous to me. Most of the connecting buses have bike racks on front but that of course is not possible on light rail which is loaded from platforms.

Yes, although MARTA's policy is "bikes allowed on all trains," it's not always practical. It's often so packed that you can't get on, or you can't get off, plus you risk giving some nice lady a chainring tatto on her L'Eggs, or maybe some tire filth.

If you get on first at the last station, you can often grab an empty compartment at the back of the train set aside for luggage. Then, you wait until enough people have cleared off before you exit. It takes a bit more skill than it should, really.

Plus, the other problem (one reason I prefer riding all the way) is that in the winter, if you get heated up and sweaty, you cool off in the bus or train, then you get chilled going back out into the cold air. If you just stay on the bike instead, you stay warm.

I remember running to catch the bus one chilly morning, about a mile, lots of it uphill. After I got on the bus, I noticed that my window and all the windows near me on my side of the bus were steaming over, but all the other windows were clear.

I've ridden the light rail you mention and it's perfectly safe. I bring my bike all the time on the light rail in New Jersey without any fear of falling over. The lightrail is the wave of the future. They just opened a line in Houston and it was packed with 400 passengers per train!

When I lived in Chicago I loved it and used it constanly, now I live in Denver and it is very unreliable, this city needs more buses. After 5 years of living car free I had to get a vehicle. It really complicates life and our finances.

Like Homer Simpson says, "Public transportation is for losers". I prefer not to take it, but then again I've never lived in a city with a good transit system. I prefer my bike, but I'll drive if I have to.

disclaimer: I don't agree with Homer, but I thought it was a funny line.

I takes public transpertation ev'ry chance I gets. Shucks, whenever I needs to git down to Reno, I always take the greyhound. It shore beats ridin' ol' paint across the desert!

Your experience on public transporatation is going to depend on the quality of the system. If the equipment is not maintained, the routes don't go where you need to go, or the schedule doesn't work for you, you're not going to be happy with the experience. On the other hand, if the local municipality has made a committment to, and a reasonable investment in, the local public transportation system, you might be surprised!

Even though I don't use it much, Portland's got a great public transportation system, including bus, light rail and street car, that serves a lot of people, most of whom don't seem to complain about the experience; in fact there are many local advocates working to make the system better; improvements continue to grow the system; and ridership routinely outpaces projections each time a new line opens.

In the city where I live, the only public transportation is bus. Their schedule is so unpredictable that they can be 15 minutes on either side of the scheduled arrival time. That can have you waiting at a bus stop for 45 minutes. In the winter, it is a painfully cold wait.

A couple of years ago, we had a snowstorm so I decided to take the bus to work. It took three transfers and two hours. I could have walked on foot in that amount of time.

I can get almost anywhere I want in the town by bike in 45 minutes.

The city recently bought some smaller buses to scale down and save fuel. The new buses cost around $100,000 so it got some press. I suggested that the city public transit could increase ridership and save the city money if they switched from buses to Corvettes. Corvettes are cheaper, use less fuel and I never see more than one passengers on any bus at one time, so it could fulfill ridership needs.

People don't realize how much it costs to own a car! Seriously. When you own a car, all the costs associated with insurance, maintenance and fuel are put on the motorists. When I take the Light Rail, all those costs are SUBSIDIZED by the taxpayers of New Jersey and not by me! The actual costs of riding the Tram would be about $6.00 dollars each way without subsidation, yet I only pay about .70 cents per ride and weekends are free.

When I owned a car, it complicated my finances big time. Short periods of unemployment practically bankrupted me when I could not find work. I couldn't save any money and spent hours at the auto mechanic handing him all my money and paying the balances with credit cards. I clearly understand why we have record numbers of bankruptcies each year and it's due to auto ownership. I really believe Americans save so little money is due to their transportation costs (auto) are incredibly high and out of control. You're going to struggle big time if the second biggest cost in your household is your car. My transportation costs per month is my ninth largest household cost and I intend to keep it that way.

If you live in a state with little or poor public transporation, you have my condolences.

I never use public transportation. I still remember waiting in bus lines when I took the bus to high school. Then there was a half hour to catch the transfer bus. It was faster to walk the 2 1/2 miles. When I worked downtown Detroit, it was horrible trying to get a bus that was not full, and then I had a transfer at West Grand Boulevard. All the buses coming from downtown were full. I'd NEVER take public transport again. I have worked on the midnight shift for twenty years and public transport does not address shift workers.

I take public transit only when I'm carrying something too big to carry on my bike or when I need to be dressed more formally than is feasible on the bike - generally, not more than about three to four rides a month, usually all on the same day - I save up "heavy errands" and run them all at once with an unlimited daily metrocard.

As for the outrageous cost of keeping a car (as Dahon.Steve mentions), even indulging my bike habit pretty heavily, I'm saving a lot of money (and burning a lot of calories) commuting by bike - by my figures, keeping a paid-off Honda in New York cost me an average of close to $420 every month for the two years I did so; $180 went to parking and $193 to insurance every single month, and I averaged a break-in every nine months or so with a $500 deductable. So even with my current obsessive bike-upgrading and an unlimited metrocard every now and again, my wallet is happy

-chris

If you live in New York City, it would be insane to own a car. People who own cars in Manhattan are either rich or broke! I know plenty of lawyers in New York City that are making 150K a year and don't own a car. People who own cars in Manhattan are just trying to show off their wealth or trying to look wealthy which is foolish in my opinion.