Public Transit

The man sitting behind me on the NJ Transit train is snoring.

In a conversation on Wednesday night with a few New Yorkers, we were
discussing the pros and cons of living in New York. While there were
many pros, what one guy said was that about once a month, you have a
"bad New York day," which usually involves taking the bus and coming
across some interesting characters.

When I took the bus yesterday, I must admit I was surprised to see
people from a wide variety of walks of life. One of the advantages of
living in a city with a great transit system is that everyone takes
transit.

I grew up in the suburbs of the city with the worst transit system in
the world. Well, it may not be the worst, but it definitely ranks up
there. And being in the suburbs definitely compounded the problem.

In the past month and a half, I have spent time in cities with great
transit systems. There are two characteristics which make these
transit systems great. First, I have been able to take transit to and
from the airport. Second, as a relatively new visitor to the city (in
Munich, it was my first visit, and it was my second visit to Toronto
and NYC), I was able to figure out and use the transit system while
being on my own, without a resident of the city. To be fair, of
course, I did have people letting me know what to look for.

Sent from my iPhone