Why public transit + walking is the best way to travel for the enlightened person

[XeutonMojukai]

As a senior in high school, I made a promise to myself that I'd never drive a car until it was absolutely necessary.

I use the bus, and I have discovered that it is the best way for me to travel as a person who is enlightening myself more and more every day.

Here are my reasons, and I would like any other ideas you guys could come up with too... It's not just pollution prevention that makes buses good!

Transit Benefits:
- No need to focus on the road as the driver, but watching as a passenger is soothing.
- Intentions of meeting interesting people often manifest on my bus trips.
- Less cost means less need for income. Much better for avoiding employment.

Walking Benefits:
- Gives you a chance to have walking meditations.
- Allows interaction with totems oftentimes.
- Openness to the elements allows them to speak to you.
- Animals along the way are a great gauge of how in tune you are with the Absolute Will: if they run early, you're in a low state. If they do not run at all, your state is very high.

Benefits of both:
- Moving without navigating consciously allows the vibrations of your thought to not pile up in your aura, making negative thoughts turn into downward spirals.
- You can talk to people you see around you as a friend, rather than a competitor in some made-up race.
- Your body gets exercise, and your mind has time to think, while your emotions get a rest, and your spiritual self can tune in with nature.

So, next time you see someone sitting with a Buddhist smile at a bus stop, even if it's in the beaming, smog-ridden sunlight and their faces are bright red, just remember: it might be me!

~ David

[BookWorm74]

I LOVE public transporation and walking as well. I don't know why there's a stigma associated with it. I love riding the bus mainly because I can do other work and get things done, not to mention cheaper!

[Megan]

Great topic--some of my happiest memories are of walking and taking public transportation to work. It just felt right, for lots of the reasons you mentioned.

When I got a car, it changed my feeling about work, but I had never really thought about it until now--thanks!

Megan

[XeutonMojukai]

Wow, I'm glad this got such a warm reception thus far.

One of the other things I enjoy about the bus is that it's a great place for sitting meditation, since it's like resistance training for your Zen concentration.

Walking, on the other hand, gives me an opportunity for my personal form of psychic training: walking with my eyes closed. It's very relaxing, and has raised my confidence in my psychic abilities as much as it's enhanced their actual capacity.

~ David

[Megan]

Yeah, it can be meditative, and when I lived in Boulder the scenery was wonderful, and I could listen to the most amazing and deep conversations on the bus.

I felt altogether more engaged with the world when I was running for the bus, or pedaling furiously to get to the bus stop and throwing my bike on the front of the bus.

And, in the spring...lilacs! You can't smell lilacs when you're driving!

[Megan]

Oh, and about the animals--I never heard anyone else say that. When I walk my country road, I know the state I'm in by the animals.

If the cows and llamas spot me from across the pasture and come running, or the horses crowd to the fence and fight over nibbling my gloves and hair, and I have seven neighborhood dogs following me, I know I'm in a high state!

I've had these things happen from time to time, but not consistently. It's always magical when it happens, though.

[ginkgo]

A woman from Sweden, or somewhere in that region, told me that 95% of the people use public transportation. So cars have little importance there. I love visiting center city Phila. but would not want to live there. I live in a more rural area. Parking a car in center city is a huge hastle and taking a bus is so convenient.

Once on the bus I was talking to 2 women visting here for a few days from South Africa. I had just bought Rooibos tea, which comes from there. So I had a nice talk about it with them. Also I started talking to a woman on the bus and it turns out she is good friends with a friend of mine.

Also I am not supposed to say this because mediation should be done at home with no distractions. But countless times on the bus I have experienced perfect peace and limitless happiness doing a certain meditation that is suposed to be done in private. To read more about this meditation and how psychologists have researched this experience of perfect peace, read the short article, What is Enlightenment. In some places around here, parking a car near your home is a nightmare.

[palimpsest]

Less pollution is enough of a reason for me, although I like walking best because it brings me back to the use of my body (which I often neglect.) Thanks for making this post, Xeuton, I feel so much less alone in this enjoyment (my family can't see how I can stand non air-conditioned environments, and my friends won't walk these streets without a taser.)

[Matthew Shea]

Personally, I wish my area had a respectable public transportation system. Where I live there certainly is a stigma associated with it for the reason that it's so poorly supported, organized and funded that you don't take it unless there's no other option. The only people who use it tend to be those who are too poor to afford a car or have lost their license. It's a sad state of affairs.

There is hope, though. They're talking about introducing rail transport. If that succeeds and if it makes sense, I'll be one of the first riders. I'd gladly give up the stress of driving so I could regain some personal time on the way to work.

[elai]

Why I like personal vehicles, especially airplanes:

From point a to b:

Bus, Ferries & Bicycles: 5 hours (1.5 hours being the ferry)
Car & Ferry: 3 hours
Car & Airplane: 1.5 hours (1 hour being the car)

I've used a bicycle & public transportation and many times I prefer it when the weather is good, the destination is close, or the bus is convenient. But if it's a transferring nightmare, or it's raining, I would much prefer a is just nicer. When you have both in easy reach you'll start to understand.

[Megan]

Actually, standing at a lonely bus stop on the edge of the prairie in a snowstorm at 10:00 p.m. is a good memory for me, believe it or not.

And trying to drive my car on icy streets, well, not so sweet.

To each his own, I guess.

[openeyes]

I try to mainly live in areas where everything is in either walking or bicycling distance, with the necessity of a car being the exception rather than the rule. I also try to minimize my need to be in a rush to get anywhere.

That said, I'd probably go for riding my bicycle to a local airport and flying a private plane to my destination, then getting out and riding my bike from there over dealing with driving through over 100 miles of car traffic.

[Chet]

I only wish more of the world was organized to support this. Unfortunately many places are down right dangerous without a car. I recall living for a bit in Oklahoma. Even the mailboxes were all 'drive-up', to mail a letter required stepping onto the highway, I had to walk in the road just to take out the trash

More of the world needs to be built for pedestrians, not cars.

[WanderingOak]

I lived that way when I was growing up in Brooklyn because my family didn't own a car. It was great, except when I had to 'run the gauntlet' of bad neighborhoods between where I was and where I needed to be. It was four blocks in a straight line, but I had a good chance of being held up/beat up/mugged/stabbed/shot during those four blocks. So, I had to go 10 blocks out of my way, just to go to school or the library. There are some areas where 'street culture' ain't very pretty. Having a car back then wouldn't have been any better, because it would have been parked on the street, and subjected to thieves and vandalism. It was that kind of neighborhood.

Right now where I live in rural VA, they are re-paving some of the streets without shoulders, turn lanes or sidewalks. I guess pedestrians are expected to be walking in traffic...

[pylonian]

I totally agree. It makes so much sense - health benefits + spiritual benefits + conscience benefits + monetary benefits = Bene!

Here in Portland we are blessed with a quite decent public transit system, amazing bike support (from nearly all sectors of society), beautiful scenery and a lack of extreme weather. That's why so many of us bike so much.

It's a beautiful thing.

[Ivan]

My situation is much like Chet's and Matthew's. I live in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and it's downright dangerous to walk anywhere. That's why I decided to walk every morning as an exercise activity. I started about a month ago and it's already addictive. That morning walk around my neighborhood serves as a nice energizer. In fact, while I haven't quit coffee altogether, I now need a lot less to get through the day. It has acted as a great substitute for coffee, and gets me in a meditative state.

[Iksander]

When I used to work close to my home - it was about a 50 minute walk, which was extremely pleasant when the plum trees would blossom...

Now, it is about a 45 minute drive in my own car to get to work - while buses do run down there, I already have to get up at 5 in the morning just to get to work on time after working out, eating, etc...

Working from home, or owning my own office near home would be most ideal... Soon, indeed, at the rate I am going

In India - trains and buses are all you've got; I remember traveling there and how amazing it is - your feet and the bus are all you have to get around the country...

[XeutonMojukai]

Originally Posted by Iksander

In India - trains and buses are all you've got; I remember traveling there and how amazing it is - your feet and the bus are all you have to get around the country...

And just look at how they're doing as far as education, living quality, and other things like that:

It may not look like much to us, but their culture is nigh-infinitely richer than our own.

Where we go nuts for the newest iPhone, they are content to grow up learning the sorts of things we need to have a mid-life crisis to realize...

Which country is richer? *raises eyebrow*

~ David

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Iksander

When I used to work close to my home - it was about a 50 minute walk, which was extremely pleasant when the plum trees would blossom...

Now, it is about a 45 minute drive in my own car to get to work - while buses do run down there, I already have to get up at 5 in the morning just to get to work on time after working out, eating, etc...

Why is it that you have to get up early for a 45 minute drive to work when you didn't have to for a 50 minute walk to work?

[The David]

I'm a big fan of walking. It's not uncommon for me to walk 9 miles around town in
one day. But I don't have my license, so that's probably why.

[Alex Wu]

Hey guys. I've also found that walking and public transit does indeed convey many of the benefits we're talking about here. Until last month, I was walking, cycling or taking the bus everywhere. I didn't always enjoy it, as there were only so many places I could get to that way, and taking the bus limits you to leaving the house in 20 or 30 minute intervals (at least where I live).

So I went and bought a car, but a car has its own drawbacks. For example, when I'm driving along streets where I used to walk, I feel detached from the landscape. When I'm driving, I'm much more given to feeling impatient (even though it is many times faster than walking the same route!) and getting upset when pedestrians cross the street, forcing me to stop for them.

On the other hand, a car has allowed me to attend Toastmasters meetings at an excellent club that is almost impossible to get to by walking or cycling (it's ~20km from my apartment) or by bus (which doesn't go there at all). I've been able to run grocery errands for an elderly friend, and on the weekends and exceptionally hot days, I can take trips to the beach or just drive around the country. A car really has two sides to it, and from a practical point of view, many people do need one. The trick is to use the car only when other forms of transportation are impossible, but one big barrier to that is the fact that once you plunk down the fixed costs to purchase a car (purchase price and insurance), it makes a lot of sense to drive it a lot because the only cost you incur everytime you drive is gasoline (petrol) and of course maintenance every now and then. Once you own a car and have paid for insurance, it's pretty cheap to get around (not to mention very quick), so there's less incentive to walk, bike or take the bus (whose fare might exceed the gasoline price of taking the same trip in your car).

[JimC]

I have found that using public transportation has it's pros and cons, but in the long run has turned out to be better.

If I ever got a car, it would only be if I am in need of a full time job that's more than a few minutes away. Hopefully that won't happen if I find myself making some money online.

For the most part I ride the bus because of the ways you mention. It's a lot cheaper too. Between gas, maintenance, and insurance the bus comes out a lot cheaper. A bus pass here is $38 for the whole month, and they run every 30 minutes all throughout the entire county.

It gives me time to read, work on my studies or just think, and I meet lots of interesting people. So unless I was stressed for a special location job, I could see myself riding the bus forever, even if I get rich (though I could hire a driver). =)