Transportation Other Than Cars

[s14silvias14]

I hope this is keeping within the rules and guidelines of the forum. Plus I don't know if anyone has talked about it since I haven't been on this site since January, and a lot has changed since then.

I was just wondering what mode of transport other people have been using in this country, considering that the railroad system is nothing like other countries or most of Europe.
I had the privelage of living in Europe for a few summers over the passed decade, so I was able to take advantage of the train and busing systems while there. It was easy to hop on a train to London from the southern coast of England and get there in a little over an hour.
Plus the buses were more accessible; off the train, or subway as well...but not always 100% good to all who have used those systems.

It makes me wonder what it would be like to have a better railroad system in the U.S. It would be nice to hop on a high speed train to get from New York City to Chicago within 5 hours, rather than a 16 hour drive(guestimating).

Until that happens, what has everyone been using other than their cars to get to places? I got a bicycle to take care of short trips.

[2.2 Straight six]

My feet.

I've covered some 34 miles in the last 3 days, and i'm about to go out again.

[s14silvias14]

I hate the way my city is set up. There is a giant cluster of housing, then about 5 miles away, there are the shops. I have only a little plaza and a park nearby, if I want to go for a swim or get a sandwich...but that isn't that often. The hard part is going to work. It takes me 20 minutes to drive to work. If I would ride my bike there it would be dangerous because the roads out there have little to no room for a bike lane.

[Hungrycat7]

I have been riding my bike a lot lately. Also here in Cincinnati they have drawn up plans to build some street cars similar to the ones in San Francisco! That would be nice but who knows how long it will take them to secure financing and actually get them built and operating!

[RaeRae1]

We are pretty lucky here. We have wide streets on a grid system. You can get almost anywhere by the bus (although, the routes need some revamping in my opinion). It can be tough to ride a bike sometimes because half the city is on a mountain range so the hills can be pretty rough to get up (down is fun though!). We also have a light rail system that goes east/west to bring people to downtown from the foothills and up from downtown to the University.


Hey 2.2 - added benefit to the new job eh? Get exercise and make money.

[jon@af]

Right now my Cannondale serves me well for short distances (a couple to a few miles away) but unfortunately, there aren't many roads that I can take with my road bike and my town sucks with the whole "sidewalk" thing, so I have to drive.

[93rollaracer]

Depending on where you are in the U.S. you can get places via public transportation. D.C. has a pretty solid subway system, so as long as you're willing to risk your health on a train and walk a little bit you can get to where you need to go with minimal or no driving.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by RaeRae1

Hey 2.2 - added benefit to the new job eh? Get exercise and make money.

Yep, but it's over now. Monday i'm back in the workshop environment. Then i really become a Golf Doktor..

[s14silvias14]

Hungrycat, I have been to Cincinnati often and I think that street cars would fit in well with the aesthetic of the city. I actually live in Cleveland and we are going through a revamp of the downtown area to not only include bus only lanes, but I think they are looking to bring back the electric trolly trains, which would be nice. We also have a train system that starts one train on both the east and west side, but the downside is that you have to drive to one of their pickup points...which for most people who work downtown is a half hour drive, and it stops operation at midnight.

It would be nice to live in a city like New York City, or even D.C. like rollaracer said.

[72chevelleOhio]

Originally Posted by s14silvias14

I actually live in Cleveland .....

It would be nice to live in a city like New York City, or even D.C. like rollaracer said.

Whats wrong with Cleveland? I've heard "Cleveland Rocks" once or twice or more.....
(While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was being built, it was a dump back then , in the area I was at anyway.....looked sorta like Toledo does today )

All those pedal cars and nobody has put the 18 speed gears off a bicycle on them yet????

[speediva]

I take a Light Rail Train to/from work, but it's not nearly as nice as the DC Metro system.

I did a TON of work in DC last year, and took the Metro pretty much everywhere I went. Depending on the stations, they can be very nice and not terribly dangerous. Most of the time, if you have headphones in, people will leave you alone.


As for Pittsburgh, the LRT doesn't go very fast or far - only to/from the Southern suburbs. Sadly, I have to drive to a Park & Ride just to get on a train, and they also shut down at midnight. Since my parents live far enough outside of town, there aren't any sidewalks so bikes/walking are kinda out of the question. I would ride my motorcycle, but between a sprained shoulder and sh!tty weather (more cloudy days than Seattle) it doesn't often work out.

[BeZerK2112]

JetPack...

[s14silvias14]

Originally Posted by 72chevelleOhio

Whats wrong with Cleveland? I've heard "Cleveland Rocks" once or twice or more.....
(While the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was being built, it was a dump back then , in the area I was at anyway.....looked sorta like Toledo does today )

All those pedal cars and nobody has put the 18 speed gears off a bicycle on them yet????

Also Jacob's..er...Progressive Field, the new Brown's stadium, and the Science Center.

I didn't mean for it to sound that negative to live in Cleveland. Although I want to move somewhere else while I'm young, I still would like to live in Cleveland when I settle down. I love it here.

I try to keep up with what is going on in my city and there has been a lot of buzz on revamping the downtown area, including the used to be famous Flats. But I haven't heard much about the transportation system. It would be a great idea to turn our Tower City into the center station for trains to run through, that way all this work they are doing downtown will pay off with bringing in younger investors.

[Hungrycat7]

Originally Posted by s14silvias14

It would be nice to live in a city like New York City, or even D.C. like rollaracer said.

That's pretty cool! I actually just moved to Cincinnati from Cleveland about a year ago! Mass transit is a great idea in any big city! I think Cleveland did a better job at providing it than Cinci!

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by speediva

I did a TON of work in DC last year, and took the Metro pretty much everywhere I went. Depending on the stations, they can be very nice and not terribly dangerous. Most of the time, if you have headphones in, people will leave you alone.

Different over here, it goes either way. They either leave you alone, or stab you and rob you. It's not safe anywhere here. A guy just got stabbed to death in a supermarket que over que-jumping. He wasn't even involved.

London has awesome public transport. This is why i don't have a car, i can get anywhere by bus/tube/train or walking. Walking is the preferred method of transport for me.