Ran into a guy at the Kroger on Ponce who convinced me to stop hating on MARTA

I was standing in line at the deli counter last Tuesday, muttering to myself about how the 26 bus is always late. This older gentleman in front of me turned around and just said, 'You know, I've been riding MARTA for 18 years and it never broke my car.' That stuck with me because my car just cost me $700 for a transmission fix. He told me he used to commute from Decatur to Buckhead every day, and the train saved him about $300 a month in gas and parking. We talked for maybe 10 minutes about his route and how he reads a whole book a week on the ride. I went home and actually looked up a bus route near my house to try next week. Has anyone else had a good experience swapping driving for riding?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_derek15d ago

Wait, have you actually tried taking that bus route yet though? I used to think like this too until I realized MARTA adds an extra 45 minutes to my commute each way. Saving money is cool but I would rather have that time back honestly.

brian32815d ago

I switched to the 7:15 express bus and it shaved 20 minutes off my regular route. The local bus that stops every block is brutal, gotta find the limited stop version if your city has one. Also started doing my work emails on the bus so that time isn't totally wasted, makes the tradeoff feel way better.

dakota_patel9814d agoMost Upvoted

Is it just me or does "saving time" on the bus actually mean just finding a different way to drink your coffee while staring out the window? I tried the whole "doing work emails on the bus" thing once and ended up accidentally hitting reply all to my boss's weekly update. Trust me, nothing humbles you quite like explaining to your entire department why you typed "those numbers look wrong" with a sleepy bus face. I respect the hustle but my brain just seems to turn into mashed potatoes the second that bus starts moving. Honestly, 20 minutes shaved off sounds amazing but I'd probably just use that time to panic about the emails I forgot to send.