(no subject)

[fabrisse]

I don't understand Southern Californians.

Gasoline is well over $3.00 a gallon. It's going up. And people are saying that they will quit their jobs rather than take the bus.

Seriously. In my office, I overheard that conversation.

My jaw has dropped past my knees.

I've been trying to find a viable way to make it to my office by public transportation for months. (In a weird moment of synchronicity, I actually discovered the correct way to accomplish this. It will take over 2 hours to make it to work. I have issues with getting up early, but 45.00 per week for gas will help me overcome them.) Somehow, it makes me less than human not to want to drive 32 miles a day.

Part of that overheard conversation included the line, "I wouldn't feel like a person if I had to take the bus."

*whimper*

Comments

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Begroeten! (Not that I have much chance to practice my very little Dutch anymore.)

Public transportation in the United States is, in a word, bad. There are three major exceptions to this statement: New York, Boston, and Chicago. There are a few minor exceptions, too. The ones that I have at least a passing familiarity with are the Atlanta and D.C. Metros and BART (San Francisco).

Everywhere else makes do with outdated buses on routes that only make sense for maids or the unemployed. Outside the Northeastern US, mass transit is a class issue.

High gas prices may start to change that.

Most Americans associate possession of a car with freedom. There's a reason why so many of our novels take place either in cars or on the open road. After Eisenhower signed the highway system into existence, we, as a nation, abandoned trains. Cars let you go wherever you want to by any route you choose. There's no need to conform to someone else's schedule.

But then there's gridlock and holiday weekend deaths and crowding.

Until I came to Southern California, though, I'd never run into the extreme versions of this.

There are environmentalists here. But there are alot more movie folks and movie folks -- even the minor ones that I know -- are extremely concerned with appearances.

One of my first encounters with Southern California's obsession with how things look -- and taking the bus makes you look poor or illegal or something -- came the first time I visited here. I'm not a small woman. Ever since a series of injuries starting about a decade ago, I've been fat.

I went to the ladies room of a restaurant and the women changed their conversation from a trip they were planning to how fat people should know how offensive they looked and not leave the house.

The story Gileswench tells in the comment below about the lawns rather than serescaping is also telling.

It's times like these that I really miss living in Brussels or London where I either walked or trained EVERYWHERE. I used my car so seldom that once I hadn't noticed that I'd been towed for over a week. (Imagine that impound fee). That would be completely impossible here.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad I'm not a southern Californian any more, as much as I sometimes miss the weather. I think I might enjoy living there if I could live in Santa Monica and work at UCLA, since then the buses would be frequent and convenient. But overall, I remember the transit situation out there being just BAD.

I wonder if your coworkers would consider those of us who can't drive subhuman?

[catspaw-sgjd.livejournal.com]

I went to the ladies room of a restaurant and the women changed their conversation from a trip they were planning to how fat people should know how offensive they looked and not leave the house.

::boggles::

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

My mind boggled at the time. The only good thing to come out of it was that Mom saw how hurt I was and didn't make a single comment about my weight on that trip. It may have been only 4 days, but from my mother that was an heroic effort at niceness.

The more I think about the whole transportation issue, the more I think this is a class and perception issue rather than really being about the transport.