I’m a day late for Truthful Tuesday this week but better late than never, right? This week on Truthful Tuesday, hosted by Thoughts and Theories, asks:

If you live somewhere that it’s essential to own a vehicle for day-to-day living, if public transportation where you live were to suddenly be improved to the point that it became a viable alternative to taking your own vehicle, would you still feel the need to own a vehicle? On the flip side, if you do live where there is decent public transportation, do you still find it necessary to own a vehicle?

I have been taking public transportation since I moved to Utah in 2007. Public transportation isn’t bad in Utah unless you live in suburbia. Nonetheless, public transportation is the way to get around the city as parking can get expensive.

Though public transportation has improved in the recent years, I still feel it’s essential to own a personal vehicle just because there’s no public transit to take you up the mountain or any of the fun natural places.

I depended mostly on public transportation until 2020 when service stopped or became very limited for a period of time, forcing me to drive to work. I should use the word “force” because I enjoy driving more than taking the train or the bus. The only reason I didn’t used to drive to work prior to the pandemic is because my mom didn’t let me.

We’ve had so many arguments since I got my new car in 2018 that I started to question why did I even get a car if she’s just only letting me drive across the street to the bus stop or the train station at the farthest.

When I first began going back to the office for one day a week (about 2 weeks after the official beginning of the pandemic), I rode the train to work. When I got to the station thinking the train would arrive in 3 minutes but instead, it was 33 minutes. Then I saw the sign regarding limited services. The next week, I began driving to work instead of working around the train schedule.

In my opinion, as long as I don’t live in the city, it is essential to own a vehicle, otherwise, instead of making a quick 5 minute trip to the store, I will be walking 20 minutes to an hour to get some food. Oh, and yes, even if public transportation were to suddenly improve, one still needs a personal vehicle because if you depend on public transportation, your schedule will be revolve around that schedule.