Something I personally find really underrated that I think a lot of people in larger cities probably take for granted, is how accessible they are.

Where I live is a medium-sized town near a University, so we do have some public transit, but mostly only near the university itself, and then again downtown in the entertainment district. If you want to go from one end to the other though? Forget it, you’re ubering if you don’t have a car.

Something I was really struck by when I was visiting a parent nearly a decade ago, who was working in the San Francisco Bay Area of California was how easy it was to get around, even early on in my diagnosis, when I was struggling to get around at times. There were plenty of places to walk, and buses ran all over the city.

But the thing I really liked the most about the bay area was the BART - the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It is a TRAIN! That runs! All over the city!!!

I know public transit gets a bad rap stateside, and I get why - in my city, it’s inaccessible, and poorly maintained, too expensive for what it offers, etc.

One thing I’ve never really understood is the common criticism I hear of “ew you have to be around other people,” to use public transit. I think Americans are so poisoned by the car mentality that they cannot even stand the idea of being near someone else. Also, I know that a lot of this complaint is just saying “ew there will be homeless people,” which, while I get why some people are uncomfortable about that, but like…homelessness is a problem we as a society should try and solve! Forcing homeless people out of sight and making it illegal to be homeless only worsens the problem, and serves to dehumanize those who become homeless, but honestly, that’s a rant for another time and I’d rather not get into that right now…

ANYWAY!

As I was saying, I didn’t have a car while I was visiting, so I was worried I’d be stuck in their apartment all day, but it was actually really easy to get around!

My family member I was staying with was actually living in Pacifica at the time, a small city just south of the bay area, and while it didn’t have its own BART station, it did have a bus stop not even a block from the apartment where they lived! So I was able to take the bus to the closest BART station and get into San Francisco proper very easily! I spent my time there barely at the apartment at all.

I managed to visit Haight-Ashbury (specifically the Ben & Jerry’s right at the corner of those two streets, which had an excellent mango sorbet!), which was kind of a significant place during the counterculture movement of the 60’s and always somewhere I wanted to visit; I made it to the Castro, I got to visit both SF’s Japan and Chinatowns, and ate lunch at some great restaurants!

All around, good times were had, and the only reason I was able to enjoy it as much as I had was because of the existence of the BART. The relative I was visiting at the time worked all week, so we really only spent any time together in the evenings, which meant I might have been stuck alone at home all day, but thanks to the bay area’s strong public transit system, nowhere in the city was off limits to me, really!

I really wish there was something like that where I live now, because having to wake up extremely early and take my partner to work on days I have an appointment or otherwise arrange a ride can be very frustrating at times! I honestly don’t understand many American’s opposition to public transit, because it’s great when you need it! But I guess people using things is socialism or smth idk.