Some of you may know how this feels. Living in a small city in the US and not owning a car. If you don't know how it feels, I will explain. Imagine you are in Bangalore and you don't have a car or a bike (I know it is hard to imagine that, but give it a try). Also imagine auto-rickshaw-wallahs are on strike and so are 95% of the BMTC drivers. You should be getting the picture now. Now you just need to imagine that the nearest grocery store is 2 miles from home :)
In my previous visit to the US I had not lived a single day without a car at home. I had never boarded a city bus in the entire 1 year I lived here. But this time around, no escaping from that. We only rent a car on some weekends when we feel like driving a bit. Luckily my office is right next to my apartment, so it is faster to walk to work than drive.
To give it's due credit, Austin does have a fair network of city bus service. But the biggest complaint is that there are no buses to our place late in the evening. By late evening, I mean 6PM! But when the buses do ply, they make an enjoyable ride. Neat, nice, nearly-empty buses with good AC and cheerful drivers. Just 1 Dollar gets you to ride for 24 hours. Surely the bus service should be one of the biggest loss-making companies around here! Add to that, there are these 'Ozone action days' when the ride is free. I really don't know how these ozone action days help ozone, I have started liking ozone now!
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