Public Transportation

My hometown of Santa Rosa, CA suffers from a rather ineffectual public transportation system. “CityBus” as they stylize it features a fleet of primarily outdated and – frankly – odd-smelling buses running nineteen expensive, inconvenient routes, which do not operate past 7:00 PM. The nearest stop to my house is five minutes away by foot, and my experiences have demonstrated the drivers' total inability to keep a schedule. The service is not subsidized for students of the local junior college and further contributes to traffic congestion in the city's center and harmful vehicle emissions.

Back in Davis, I am spoiled by the well-designed, free (to undergrads) public transportation provided by UNITRANS. Two routes run directly by my apartment complex every fifteen minutes between 6:30 AM and 11:30 PM, and in less than twenty minutes I can be dropped off at either of the University's main hubs: the Silo or the Memorial Union. The city is also remarkably bike friendly, and my motorcycle solves the issue of difficult to find parking downtown. Although Davis is heavy with spread-out suburbs, the city becomes easily maneuverable thanks to the development of efficient public transportation infrastructure.

However, the public transportation network in Vienna blows UNITRANS out of the water. Vienna's cross-platform network includes extensive S-Bahn, U-Bahn, tram, and bus systems, the latter three using shared tickets. A recent survey I found online shows that 53% of Viennese commute to work daily via public transportation. My experiences with Wiener Linie was overwhelmingly positive. From our apartment on Kandlgasse, I am less than two minutes from the nearest tram stop and less than four minutes to the nearest metro terminal. The city's first district, bounded by the Ringstrasse, provides the perfect hub for transportation to and from the outer city. As a tourist, the public transportation system makes me feel close and connected to the city's historic center without paying for the luxury of the beautiful Hotel Sacher.

The newest generation of the Wiener Linien trams