Planes, trains or automobiles?

by Harrold "Haole" A`hole

Why do free people choose personal transportation with trucks, cars, motorcycles, bikes and occasionally even on foot? After all, there's public transportation that can make our lives better, at least that's how they pitch all these ideas for trains, monorails and buses.

What good is personal transportation over public?

• If there's a terrorist strike, will they attack our personal cars, or will they set their sights on trains, planes and buses? One contains a few people, driving at somewhat random times over random routes. The other contains lots of people at scheduled times over fixed routes.
• Do you prefer hopping into your car unmolested, or do you prefer to have your bags and body searched to ensure you aren't carrying a lighter, nail clippers, knitting needles or other "dangerous weapons"?
• In the age of pandemic viruses and myriad communicable diseases, do you prefer to travel with people you know or total strangers who randomly join you in a closed environment with limited fresh air and significant contact and exposure?
• Does your life revolve around a fixed schedule and fixed routes that are highly limited in time and destinations, or do you like to go when and where you'd like?
• Do you like missing the last departure for the day?
• Do you prefer to haul your packages around in your arms or simply put them in the back seat or trunk?
• Do you prefer to control your own temperature, music, talk radio, audio books, silence and air quality, or do you prefer to listen to strangers' sounds and take what you get when it comes to your surroundings and environment?
• Do you prefer to walk or drive to another place in various weather conditions, arrive early, purchase tickets, stand in lines and then wait until you are allowed to depart?
• Do you prefer sticky or wet seats, smelly strangers and having others look at you lustily or beg you for money?
• Do you like to be packed in tight during the "rush" hours?
• In a medical or other emergency, do you prefer to control your own ability to move around the town or do you prefer to wait for a taxi or ride "convenient" public transportation?
• Do you prefer a cell phone or using a public telephone, which never has your contacts' phone numbers, often doesn't have a phone book, sometimes is missing the phone, requires change you never seem to have, and you get to put a piece of plastic next to your face and mouth without knowing who handled it before?

So, the next time you are asked to spend billions of your tax dollars so that others (you know you won't ride it!) can spend even more each time they ride on public transportation, you might consider whether anybody really prefers public transportation to personal transportation.