Car troubles and mass transit

 As I sit at a Nissan dealer, having them take a look at a computer issue my car has been having for a bit, I can't help but think of yet another reason I've always wanted to live in Japan. The mass transit system is leaps and bounds over what we have in most of America. Most of America is designed so you either have a car, or you're S.O.L. I lived in a town in Wisconsin for a few months, so small, the bus didn't leave the town. Which made it impossible for a carless me to try to get to the next town to find a job, which is why that's in the past tense.

Where I am now we do have a budding light rail system, that while I like, is not expansive enough to really serve. Hell, it's not even near enough for me to make common use of. The only time I use it is for conventions, or If I plan a day of riding it. And while it is ever-expanding, it's a slow process, and I swear every election there's a bill to kill the damn thing by I can only guess oil companies, who don't want the light rail because it would cut into their sales.

This is a statement that honestly shocks people when I say it, but if I could live somewhere with good mass transit, I would drop my car in a second. When your young, a car is seen as freedom, you can go where you want when you want. I quickly learned that a car is also a beast of burden. Constantly feeding it gas, oil change, tires, routine maintenance, and insurance pretty much out way the freedom it gives when if we had a good mass transit, I could still go where I want when I want and pay far less.