Avoiding Common Commuting Nightmares In The City
Professionals and students living in the major cities of the U.S. spend a significant amount of time - and money - figuring out the best way to get to work. Public transportation, carpooling or using a vehicle of your own are typically the most common solutions, and each comes with its own possible perks and potential hazards.
Driving in a rural area or in the suburbs will not prepare you in any way for the challenges that can arise when you are driving through a major city. You've probably experienced stop-and-go traffic due to an accident on the highway, but it's not at all similar to the same circumstances occurring on narrow, congested city streets.
A situation like that can drive any typically reasonable driver absolutely nuts. Carpooling doesn't avoid those problems, it simply places them in someone else's lap.
You can avoid the potential for headache-inducing traffic by using public transportation to get to work. Although the cost varies between cities, chances are it will be significantly less than what you'd pay for gas, insurance, financing costs and all other expenses related to owning a car.
Public transportation comes with its own issues. Crowding, various delays, safety concerns (in some cities at least, certainly not all) and the possibility of mechanical failures are just a few of the possible problems.
Some of these potential hiccups in your commute can be minimized with certain careful practices. Knowing the schedule of the bus or train you regularly take to work can certainly help - adjusting when you leave your home based on the likelihood of traffic or delays at a given time. The same goes for driving to work, but traffic is considerably less predictable than public transportation.
How do you get to work in the morning? Does your commute stress you out?
