A Comment on Public Transit

I love public transportation. This feeling has been intensified now that I'm living in a suburb without a car (and with the price of gas solidly over $4/gallon). I must give props to the San Fran transit system. Although it is a strange mix of diesel locomotives, buses, light rail, cable cars, and a slew of other systems, it will get you wherever you need to go... eventually.

But public transit isn't just about the modes of transportation, it's also about the interesting people you meet on the rides. Today I met a talkative woman coming back from the same rock festival that I was at in Haight-Ashbury. She told me that she had met someone at the concert that she hadn't seen since 1967 (this gives you some idea of her age). Then discussion ranged from the weather and what train stop we needed, to the bottle of vodka she had in her purse for the next leg of her trip, and finally to how annoying people my age can be. She said, "All these frat guys do is drink and go crazy. When I was your age we just got stoned and did acid. So much more mellow." While I agree with her on the menace of drunken frat boys, I'm not sure that switching to acid trips would be any improvement.