A Rural Public Transit Odyssey

For folks in the Bay Area, a challenge: Do a loop around the bay by non-commuter bus only. That means you can use skip-stop routes like Muni's 9R, but you cannot use routes like AC Transit's OX line. You also cannot use the Dumbarton Express, since it cuts off the South Bay.

It's an interesting experience, and it (or some portion of it) is one that many folks do every workday.

There's also a Youtuber who did this type of journey from San Francisco to Seattle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OQwA95sMbg) and to Los Angeles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Jdfkuy9Ik).

I thought this would be a typical odyssey through America's haphazard public transit system. I've experienced my share, and our long distance buses are mostly a disgrace (pretty much anywhere in Latin America is much better), but then I saw this: "no Amtrak or Greyhound."

Okay, this guy plays on hard mode. I'm too old for that, but I respect his style.

Wonderful and evocative article.

> We lounged at a nearby gas station to wait, sipping tea and reading the local newspaper. There was something very “old world” about this — here we were, in the largest town in our county, dressed well, idling with a purpose. Leafing through that newspaper, dipping the teabag up and down in my hot paper cup, watching the traffic, nodding at passers-by; we were in town on official business, and yet we were doing exactly nothing. I realized as we sat that this way of doing things used to be a great deal more common — that train stations, courts, libraries, street benches, barber shops, and so on simply used to have a lot more people waiting publicly.