Plane, train, bus or taxi?

"Plane, train, bus or taxi? Write about an interesting experience you had on public transportation."

Oh Trimet, how I love you. And sometimes hate you. Trimet is what makes it possible to get just bout everywhere in Multnomah County by bus. I've lived here for 3 years now, more or less, and I've done most of my getting around here without a car, and never had any trouble getting to school or work. I love that in Portland everyone rides the buses--from business people to teenagers to homeless people. Unlike a lot of other cities I've lived in, where only those who didn't have much going on had to take the bus, in Portland, a lot of people use public transit by choice. A lot of people ride the buses at night rather than drive.

Yes, there are lines that are way too crowded (like the 72) and some bus lines are more on-time than others (living on the outskirts of the system has its downsides), but overall it's an amazing system considering that the population here isn't huge. Trimet has some hybrid buses and some that run on biodiesel.

Trimet has a very useful website. It has a great trip planner (you enter where you are coming from and where you are going to and it tells you which buses to take and where to wait for it. It does not always tell you the best route combinations--you have to learn this through trial and error sometimes, but it will always get you there. And they have a real time transit tracker. You can call them from the bus stop on a cellphone, enter the stop number and find out exactly when your bus is coming (as opposed to when your bus is supposed to come!) Most of the time, this is fairly accurate, but there are exceptions!

Sometimes though, riding the bus is an exercise in endurance. Everytime you ride the #72, it's an interesting experience, guaranteed. I have the unfortunate luck of having to ride the #72 almost every day to my student teaching site. At least it's never dull...there's never a dull moment on that bus, no way! Not even at 6am. Between people spilling their hidden beer cans all over the place, customers who yell at the bus driver, people blabbing their personal business all over their phones, random fighting, and all of the 82nd street crazies, prostitutes, and meth addicts, I generally have a good time people watching...