Let's Hit the Road

         Oh transportation, oh the gas pumps, oh the prices of gas. If you haven’t noticed, gas prices are soaring! You should check out the gas station by UNR on N. Virginia; their gas prices are hilarious (arm and leg). Ha! In my neighborhood, everybody gets around by car; there isn’t really any other way to. My neighborhood is in a suburb so we are miles away from the city and many of our jobs (and in my case, school) require the use of driving in a car. Unfortunately, I have to use my car to get to places because I cannot get anywhere in a reasonable time by foot or by bike (I wish I could though). To get to the freeway, for instance, it takes me five minutes by car so it would probably take me 40ish minutes to an hour to get there by bike and who knows how long by foot (and it’s not like you are allowed to use the freeway if you bike or walk anyways, that would be dangerous).

 Public transportation is not available around Damonte; I’m not really even sure where the closest bus stop is. I am going to guess it’s a few miles away from my house which makes driving a car far more convenient than riding the bus (or rather for me, finding it). In my eighteen-year existence in Reno, I have probably used public transportation only once; it isn’t convenient for me because of where I live and where I need to go. I do know of some people who use buses, but they live within the city. Convenience is definitely a factor in whether one uses public transportation or not.

 What is peculiar, though, is that I have found public transportation far more convenient for people in other places outside of Reno and outside of the United States as well. In Lima, Peru using the little busses was a faster way for me to get around the city to visit places even though I had access to a car. I actually felt safer riding the bus than driving in a car because of all of the traffic and the fact that people do not drive defensively outside of the US! Those bus drivers sure do have a lot of experience at the wheel. The same thing happened when I was in Belgium staying with my cousin. The train was the way to get around, but I did have to take a bus to get to the train first. The traffic there was pretty crazy too, but if you’re in a train there aren’t really any obstacles that can stop you. You have your own route.

 So, from my experience, riding with public transportation is useful if it is convenient. If there was a way to come up with a design where public transportation could hit all sectors of Reno, I am sure more people would use it rather than taking their own cars, and then everyone would save gas.