Ticket to Ride

(These opinions are solely my own.)

Part of my joy of being in Paris — I love NOT HAVING TO POSSESS AN AUTOMOBILE.  Not being tethered to a car.

It is *so* freeing, to just hop on any bus or any metro and go where you need to go. No parking, no tolls, no gasoline, no car insurance, no breakdowns. So EASY! A week-long bus/metro pass is about $25. Cheaper for the month pass, cheaper still for the 1-year pass. That’s for unlimited travel on those buses, metro trains or trams.

I rode one bus to its terminus at the Eiffel Tower last week, just to view all the arrondissements it passed through enroute there.

In Nashville last January, my Volvo burned a valve and it took nearly three weeks for me to successfully repair it.  I realized during that time that — if one doesn’t have a car in my neighborhood — one isn’t going anywhere. The nearest bus pickup was at the Green Hills Mall, nearly 3 miles from my house.  That left taxis or Uber/Lyft. I didn’t have a smartphone, so…that left walking or biking were the only alternatives. Biking in Nashville is far too frightening for me, so…walking, where most streets have no sidewalks. Or asking friends for rides. Or renting a car, while I worked on mine. Bleah.

I realized a second thing – if one were unable to drive, one would be stuck in my neighborhood.

I think Nashville is trying to improve its mass transit. But it is interesting to be in a large cosmopolitan city where mass transit works and is in place.  In EVERY neighborhood.

And Paris has many hindrances of its own to mass transit — narrow streets never intended for car & bus traffic, huge numbers of bike, moped, motorcycle riders, a large physical area to cover.  But Paris (and London) still make it work — they make mass transit timely, affordable and effective for all.

Paris even has Noctillien buses — special bus routes that run all night. So, if one is downtown until 3am and needs a ride home, one can take a Noctillien bus!

Mass transit which serves the people living in a place.  What a concept!