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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how long it been since you've used public transport?

267 replies

BoysofMelody · 19/09/2017 14:37

After a thread on here over change from bus fares got very heated, a couple of people said they'd not used buses (and possibly other forms of public transport) for over 10 years.

I find it fairly incredible that you can go so long without going on a bus or use other forms - okay I get that it may be months if you commute by car/bike or walk, but surely most people will make an occasional trip by bus or train across the course of a year for a night out or on a day trip or whatever?

OP posts:
Didntcomeheretofuckspiders · 19/09/2017 20:48

I can't remember, which makes me feel like a horrible snob! I definitely have been on a train in the last few months as if I'm traveling into the nearest city it is much easier than driving or parking. But I avoid doing that at all costs because I hate being in town! I certainly have no issues taking buses or trains though and try to use them if I think they are a sensible alternative to driving.

FadedRed · 19/09/2017 20:54

Train in June.
Bus abroad last April, local bus 2-3 years ago.

treaclesoda · 19/09/2017 21:02

Although I had never used public transport until I was an adult, I do actually commute to work by bus, because I prefer to sit back and let someone else do all the starting and stopping in the traffic.

But I have a twenty minute drive to get to a bus stop that actually serves the place I need to go. If I wanted to commute by public transport from home, I would have to make a significant journey in the opposite direction from work to enable me to get to a town that has a bus service to where I need to go. And I'd have to pay for the journey that I don't want or need to take, whereas I think it would be more fair to get a discount for having to travel in the opposite direction...

QueenofLouisiana · 19/09/2017 21:08

I used the tube at the weekend, before that it would have been a tram in early August in France.

Frequency of public transport here is number of times per day a bus goes through, not per hour. A few miles away. It is counted per week! DS gets a bus to school- but that is LA chartered, not open to the public.

OSETmum · 19/09/2017 21:26

A few years ago when we went to London, we went on the tube and a bus.

I live waaaay up north on a small town. There is public transport but it's expensive, time consuming and full of unpleasant people.

I work in a school which is a 10 min drive away and to get there on a bus would take well over an hour. Ds come with me so our tickets would cost £11.20 a day as apposed to £20 per week in diesel.

We do have trains but I'd have to drive to the station and pay for parking so it's pointless really.

wellyclad · 19/09/2017 21:26

Train to London on the August BH weekend.

Andrewofgg · 19/09/2017 21:35

About an hour and a half ago after working late. I commute by Tube; the car is for the weekend (poor DE has buggered her foot and can't drive, surgery imminent) or occasional evening needs. But this is London where there is a bus from outside our front door to the Tube every four or five minutes and being an Old Fart I don't pay!

BlessYourCottonSocks · 19/09/2017 21:40

Years. We are extremely rural and everyone drives. The nearest train station is approximately 40 miles away. A bus would probably take at least 2 hours and several changes. My nearest Asda is a 90 mile round trip.

Buses are once a day, perhaps to the nearest market town. And then you have to kill hours in a town with about 6 shops and nothing to do.

Your 17th birthday present tends to be driving lessons...

Greyhorses · 19/09/2017 21:44

I never ever use it. The last time I got a bus was 10 years ago!

LongWavyHair · 19/09/2017 21:50

2 hours ago.

mumoffour1716154 · 19/09/2017 21:52

Daily use public transport, bus or train. Luckily live couple minutes walk away from a train station. Neither me or my husband can drive or want to. Our 4 children are also used to public transport, making own way to their school or college. Youngest attends primary school only at a couple of minutes walk

Catwithglasses · 19/09/2017 21:58

Regularly now, but if I still lived where I grew up I'd basically have to drive or go nowhere. I would only be using buses or trains when going on a trip to London or similar.

FWIW, I'm a strong supporter of public transport and think having to rely on a car, unless extremely rural, is a sad state of affairs.

PoppyPopcorn · 19/09/2017 22:01

I haven't been on a bus for over 10 years. (Unless you include things like shuttle buses from airports to car parks or planes to terminals)

I do sometimes use the local train, last time was around June.

FitbitAddict · 19/09/2017 22:07

We have one car and DH has a motorbike but that's just for fun Hmm

In the last week I have:
Got two trains to work and two home each working day
Driven to Heathrow and back on Saturday and Sunday (but the weekend before I used the tube when we flew up for the Great North Run)
Yesterday I got two trains to work, left at lunchtime for a training course, got a train to the venue, (plus 15 min walk) then two trains back from there to Westfield, a tube part of the way home and a bus the rest of the way (and did 16500 steps)

I can no longer imagine driving everywhere and I love reading on the train and haven't managed to get absorbed and miss my stop so far

FitbitAddict · 19/09/2017 22:08

We have one car and DH has a motorbike but that's just for fun Hmm

In the last week I have:
Got two trains to work and two home each working day
Driven to Heathrow and back on Saturday and Sunday (but the weekend before I used the tube when we flew up for the Great North Run)
Yesterday I got two trains to work, left at lunchtime for a training course, got a train to the venue, (plus 15 min walk) then two trains back from there to Westfield, a tube part of the way home and a bus the rest of the way (and did 16500 steps)

I can no longer imagine driving everywhere and I love reading on the train and haven't managed to get absorbed and miss my stop so far

FlindersKeepers · 19/09/2017 22:10

This absolutely baffles me - I live in Germany in a city, so use the reasonable, reliable, safe public transport virtually every day, if not multiple times per day. We have a camper van, but no car, as we live quite centrally and use car sharing if needed.
Even when we lived 1hr+ out we only used cars to the station.
It's just normal here.

BarbaraofSevillle · 19/09/2017 22:20

Flinders Sadly the norm in the UK (outside London and some other cities) is shit public transport that will waste hours of your life if you use it. Oh, and most people despise cyclists and provision for cycling is shit too. So most people use cars.

blackteasplease · 19/09/2017 22:23

5 hours.

I always get surprised when I hear of people not using public transport regularly.

VioletCharlotte · 19/09/2017 22:26

Last Friday I caught a train to London, then caught the bus to where I needed to go.

Rainbowblume · 19/09/2017 22:28

4 days

BarbaraOcumbungles · 19/09/2017 22:30

Surprised Black?!

The vast majority of people I know never use public transport.

Most people drive.

ShatnersBassoon · 19/09/2017 22:31

I haven't used any public transport in the past couple of years. I live somewhere with two unreliable buses a day passing through, which is no use to anyone with firm plans such as getting to work or an appointment. I'd have to drive several miles to get a train.

cleanasawhistle · 19/09/2017 22:36

Go to Manchester a lot and use the Trams while there and while visiting other places will use park and ride and get on a bus.

Haven't been on a bus at home for many years,I live ruraly and there is no public transport near where I live.

treaclesoda · 19/09/2017 22:39

Another point about public transport is that I have found that there is often pressure from employers not to be reliant on public transport. I used to work in a huge well known company and I commuted about 30 miles each way by public transport. I only had a choice of two buses. One left shortly after 5pm, the other around 8pm, and the journey took around 1 hr 15 minutes. I needed to make it to the earlier bus, except in exceptional circumstances, and as a result I was put under huge pressure to drive instead, so that I wouldn't be reliant on public transport. Particularly when I was asked to work later than 8pm but I had no possible way of getting home afterwards. And I was told at an interview once that the interviewers pet hate was people using public transport because then they were tied to certain working hours.

DontCallMeBaby · 19/09/2017 22:45

Me - just under two hours (got off the National Express from London)
DD - just over two weeks (National Express again, plus Tube in London itself, alongside me)
DH - years (gets sick on buses or coaches, hates London, and I refuse to go on trains with him as he jinxes them)

I'm also encouraging DD to use the bus to get to town and back rather than rely on lifts, but the timetable and stops are so complex ... you need to either just KNOW them, or to use the app alongside Google maps.

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