John Scalzi: Being Poor

[SheilaT]

18. Then there's the problem that there are a lot of

smaller cities as well as rural areas that just aren't going to be able to have much of a public transportation system, no matter what. And a fair number of people, poor people included, live in those areas. It's easy for someone like me to blithely suggest those people move to a city with good public transportation, but that's not realistic for very many reasons.

In the 1970's I worked as an airline ticket agent at National Airport in Washington, DC. I lived in Alexandria, VA and took the bus to and from work. We all knew pretty much what each other earned, since our pay scales were published within each airline. The differences were just seniority and shift differential. I travelled a lot. I took advantage of the essentially free airplane rides we got in a way that was well beyond what almost anyone else did. Come to think of it, it was beyond what anyone else I ever knew in that job did. Except for my friend, Don B, but he was like me in every important way. More than once a fellow employee looked at me and said, "Sheila, how can you afford to travel so much?" I always replied, "I don't own a car." It was as simple as that. Friend Don likewise did not own a car.

I have long since become a car owner, but I'm in the happy circumstances of being able to afford a reliable vehicle. It's not fancy, and it's in the middle of the specific models of this car, not the most luxurious, nor the least in terms of features. It's a 2004 that I bought used in 2007, and I currently have about 79,000 miles on it. The exact make and model aren't really important, since there are a lot of similar sorts of cars like this: reliable, fuel-efficient, likely to last at least 150,000 miles. But back in my non-car owning youth, I was often amazed at how much people spent on cars, and it's only gotten worse.

But there needs to be far better public transportation in many more parts of this country. The average person has absolutely no clue how much our car driving is subsidized through our taxes, mainly by the building and maintaining of roads, even though the latter often leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm 64 now, reasonably happy with my life as it is. But I do expect that in a few years I will relocate to be in a city with better public transportation, because the day will come when I won't be able to drive any more, and I'd be very happy to get back on a bus or subway.