But the thing that excites me most about taking public transit is watching the people who come in at every stop. It is exciting to recognize the middle schooler with the headphones, the young mother with the infant in a stroller, and the construction workers with their hard hats tucked under their arms. They are my neighbors. On public transportation, I am reminded that they are the people I am called to love.
I was going to reflect that it’s wild to me that only 3% take public transit, but when I lived in the suburbs, I took the bus maybe a few times per year outside of specific time-frames where it was most convenient to take the bus because I didn’t have access to other transportation. Now that I live in the city, being central to public transit was an important part of that - and this 3% is a reflection of how car-centric our country is and how little public transit we really have.