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When my wife was accepted to PA school at OHSU in Portland, we had to figure out how to get her the 15 miles to school every morning and then back again. It's a trip that takes 20 minutes, unless you're trying to get there at 8am when school starts, in which case it takes an hour. Traffic back in the afternoon is even worse, perhaps 70 minutes.
We tested the bus route one morning to see what that would be like. This would free my wife up to study or relax instead of the 2hrs being wasted. She had the option to walk about 1/4 mile to a bus stop, which would then take her to the transit station where she would get on another bus. That adds about 20 minutes to the ride, or you could just drive the 1.5 miles to the transit center, park the car, and get on the bus. We drove to the transit center rather than spend the extra time.
From there, it makes several stops before needing to get off and catch another bus. This required a 1/4 mile walk. Once there, we waited about 15 minutes, which was about 10 minutes behind the posted schedule. In talking to others waiting for the bus, they said it never runs on time.
It took 1:15 after driving to the bus transit center to make it to class, with a good deal of walking and standing around waiting. If anything doesn't go to plan, you're late for class. The cost is $125/mo.
My wife ended up splitting an apartment in Portland with a classmate, and I brought in 2 roommates to defray the cost (which I still have).
Public transportation sucks and is a last resort, probably only useful for tourists who don't have rental cars. Bus routes can't survive much longer, thank goodness.
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