While not really being a world traveller, I have gotten around. One time when I was much younger I rented a car while staying in NYC. I vowed never to do that again. Public transportation systems are always problematic. One friend describes them as a mode transportation that cost an arm and a leg, and takes you where you do not want to go when you do not want to travel. Another has described it as a mode of transportation that will take you halfway to where you want to be. Personally, excluding the inherent failings, I found the metro to be very easy to use. The trick was what time to use it. During off hours it was reasonably priced. During peak hours the tickets were pretty expensive. In general it would take you pretty close to where you wanted to be and once you knew where to stand in the train it required very little additional walking for transfers. The other catch 22 was that during peak time the transfers went quickly. Outside of the peak time you could wait up to 20 minutes for a transfer. I did not experiment with the buses other than the Washing Flyer which I used to get to and from Dulles and the bus trip Chris organized for us. What was really weird is that I was able to scoot around and did not need a Taxi. The Metro stations were generally clean and busy. There were only a few undesirables that I saw inside the metro stations. They must save a fortune on lighting. The lights were always dim enough not allow you to read, but light enough to see by. You needed to be on a car to be able to read.
–
Buford (AKA ‘the Pachyderm’)
