I Rode the Bus Today

Well, not today but last week I took the number 14 Beeline Bus from Peekskill down to Croton-on-Hudson to pick up my car, which had been in the shop for repairs. This was my first local bus trip in over 20 years. Unlike the train, riding the bus here carries with it a certain stigma. It seems the bus is for the blind, lame, disturbed, desperately poor, or extremely old. This is a far cry from riding the buses in Manhattan, which carry a real cross-section of the population. Here in the suburbs we need to get over our total dependence on our personal vehicles and start using alternatives that are less taxing to the planet. Most of us cannot imagine using the local busses in place of our cars but a little research would reveal that at least some of our trips could easily be accomplished on public transportation.