Being born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, I have never really had much experience with public transportation. Anywhere you needed to go, you rode in a car. Before you were old enough to drive yourself, you had to find someone else to drive you if you wanted to go almost anywhere. Almost nothing except your neighbor's house is within walking distance. Knoxville has a bus line, but it's unreliable and extremely slow. It's no one's first choice. Obviously, I could not bring my car overseas, so I had to figure out how to use these mystical forms of transportation.
Paris has an amazing and simple metro. It is by far the best form of public transportation that I have encountered so far. It's initially confusing, but it can get you anywhere you want to go. There are lots of different lines, so it can get you pretty close to your destination no matter where it is. Rome also has a metro, but there's only one or two lines, so you may have to ride the metro for a while then still walk pretty far to get somewhere. The metro in Paris can get expensive depending on where you are going. If you want to leave District 1 and go to Versailles, things get pricey. If you stay mostly in one area it's fairly cheap though.
Most people use the bus if they want to go somewhere in Chambery. It's a small enough town that you can get around pretty easily on foot or by bike, but it's extremely hot this summer, so walking isn't super fun. The bus lines are pretty nice when you know where you are going. There are enough of them to where it covers most of the town, and they are usually right on schedule. I have made the mistake once or twice of thinking that I know where I am going when I actually do not. This leads to riding the bus all the way to the end and turning back around, only to be returned to the spot you left from. Now I take someone with me if I'm not entirely confident I can get somewhere by myself. The buses are even hotter than walking, but it gets you there faster. It's also a fairly reasonable price.
The train is the way to get around in Bordeaux. (They also have buses, but I didn't really ride those much.) There are three lines that run through town. They are much slower than metros, but they're above ground, and it could be really dangerous to go too quickly. They're actually pretty similar to buses in terms of price and speed, except they don't have to deal with traffic since they're on their own track.
The Bordeaux train system did teach me a pretty important lesson though. Sometimes it's tempting to ride public transportation without buying a new ticket each time. In a lot of places, they don't check very thoroughly. You think it'll be fine because your ticket just ran out a few minutes ago, or you just plain don't want to pay. If you absolutely feel the need to do that, make sure you know what the policy is for if you get caught. Some places just require you to buy a ticket. That's not really a big deal since that's what you should have done in the first place. Other places, like Bordeaux, will give you an extremely big fine for not buying a ticket, which could cost about thirty times the price of just buying the ticket. Don't risk it.
When it comes time to go back to Chambery, getting to an airport without a car or someone to drive you is terrible. In most places, the prices are extremely high. They know that you don't really have a choice. You have to get to the airport, so they charge you a lot for it, whether it is via a train or a bus.
I'm definitely much more knowledgeable about public transportation. I probably won't ever use it at home, but it could be helpful whenever I'm not in southeast America. It would be great if Knoxville and Maryville had some better public transportation. A metro would be ideal, but that would be a project too big to finish. However, an above ground train like in Bordeaux could be pretty nice. It would definitely be better for the environment if enough people would use it. It's almost inconceivable for me to not have a car right now because I have to drive to go most places and wouldn't be able to get home without one. Maybe America will eventually catch up with Europe in that regard.
Paris has an amazing and simple metro. It is by far the best form of public transportation that I have encountered so far. It's initially confusing, but it can get you anywhere you want to go. There are lots of different lines, so it can get you pretty close to your destination no matter where it is. Rome also has a metro, but there's only one or two lines, so you may have to ride the metro for a while then still walk pretty far to get somewhere. The metro in Paris can get expensive depending on where you are going. If you want to leave District 1 and go to Versailles, things get pricey. If you stay mostly in one area it's fairly cheap though.
Most people use the bus if they want to go somewhere in Chambery. It's a small enough town that you can get around pretty easily on foot or by bike, but it's extremely hot this summer, so walking isn't super fun. The bus lines are pretty nice when you know where you are going. There are enough of them to where it covers most of the town, and they are usually right on schedule. I have made the mistake once or twice of thinking that I know where I am going when I actually do not. This leads to riding the bus all the way to the end and turning back around, only to be returned to the spot you left from. Now I take someone with me if I'm not entirely confident I can get somewhere by myself. The buses are even hotter than walking, but it gets you there faster. It's also a fairly reasonable price.
The train is the way to get around in Bordeaux. (They also have buses, but I didn't really ride those much.) There are three lines that run through town. They are much slower than metros, but they're above ground, and it could be really dangerous to go too quickly. They're actually pretty similar to buses in terms of price and speed, except they don't have to deal with traffic since they're on their own track.
The Bordeaux train system did teach me a pretty important lesson though. Sometimes it's tempting to ride public transportation without buying a new ticket each time. In a lot of places, they don't check very thoroughly. You think it'll be fine because your ticket just ran out a few minutes ago, or you just plain don't want to pay. If you absolutely feel the need to do that, make sure you know what the policy is for if you get caught. Some places just require you to buy a ticket. That's not really a big deal since that's what you should have done in the first place. Other places, like Bordeaux, will give you an extremely big fine for not buying a ticket, which could cost about thirty times the price of just buying the ticket. Don't risk it.
When it comes time to go back to Chambery, getting to an airport without a car or someone to drive you is terrible. In most places, the prices are extremely high. They know that you don't really have a choice. You have to get to the airport, so they charge you a lot for it, whether it is via a train or a bus.
I'm definitely much more knowledgeable about public transportation. I probably won't ever use it at home, but it could be helpful whenever I'm not in southeast America. It would be great if Knoxville and Maryville had some better public transportation. A metro would be ideal, but that would be a project too big to finish. However, an above ground train like in Bordeaux could be pretty nice. It would definitely be better for the environment if enough people would use it. It's almost inconceivable for me to not have a car right now because I have to drive to go most places and wouldn't be able to get home without one. Maybe America will eventually catch up with Europe in that regard.