> > ?! What else do you expect us to do, walk
> > fifty miles each direction per day? Or maybe
> > we should just go back to horse and buggy.
> > Much less efficient and way more maintenance,
> > but oh well. Or maybe we could fly to work in
> > our own private helicopters.
>
> Interesting to note that the very idea of
> public transport evidently didn't occur to
> eric. Is that a common reaction in America? In
> England it would occur and be instantly
> dismissed because of the poor state of the
> system.

Heh. Well, most people here tend to drive, from what I've seen. We do have a bus system, though, which I use pretty much every day, in fact. The particular bus I take, though, is some sort of special, magical bus that will take you directly to your doorstep -- provided you're going inside its area, which isn't even the entire city (which isn't even all that big). It only operates within the city, and only Vista, Escondido, and Ramona have them. If I didn't have this service available to me (for the price of a regular bus trip [which is, unfortunately, slated to go up soon]), the bus that goes closest to my house stops is about a mile in walking distance (as proclaimed by MapQuest.com). About a third of that is uphill. I'm out of shape and I'm lazy. I feel like an idiot when people see me taking the other bus home, though. I think buses should better accommodate residential districts.

We have no subways.

We do have a couple of trains leaving from Oceanside. One is the Coaster, which goes down to San Diego, making a couple of stops along the way, one is the MetroLink, which goes up, I think, to Orange County, making a couple stops along the way. We also have the Amtrak, which goes to random cities around the country, making a couple derailments along the way. None of these, of course, go to my school, nor do they make any stops in (or leave from) my city.

Taxis are very uncommon, too. You basically half to call them up. They don't roam the streets waiting for people to hail them the way they do in every city in the world in movies and on television.

Most people drive to work. Very few people seem to take the bus. Most of the people I see on them are teenagers or people with mental illnesses that prevent them from driving. Very few people walk. One person rides a bike. To get rid of cars, at least in our area, would be a disaster.

-eric sleator
Sat 2 Jun A.D. 2001