Et tu....traveller?

On my way to the airport, I noticed this funny thing on the airtran. If you can't see in my shoddy 6am camera work, the ad says:"THE CHEAPER WAY TO MIDTOWN MANHATTAN....$7.25"

Basically (for those of you who have never had to embark on transit from JFK into the city) they are advertising an alternative to paying an average of $45 bucks from the airport to the New York area. It's $5 bucks to ride the airtran and $2.25 to take the subway anywhere in the city....transfers are FREE.99!

This got me to thinking...there seems to be a stigma in this country. I never got around to blogging my Italy trip in its entirety (partly because I'm lazy/busy/overwhelmed and misty-eyed every time I look at all those damn pictures) but when I was over there, and in London, it's not hard at all to notice how very little attention people pay to the HOW they get places. It's more about the quality of time spent. Cars are smaller, as is public transportation, not to mention WILDLY more efficient. And EVERYONE uses it without a second thought.

I can't tell you how many people I know in New York and LA that wouldn't be caught dead on a bus or a metro. I, too was guilty as charged for a bit. Even when I moved to NYC, it took me a while to get on the bus LOL. Now I make friends on the mofo, the weekly driver knows my name...shoot I meet Head Cases!

So why is it that when in Rome, literally, we can do what is best for the environment and our pockets but at home we must do what's best for our image? Are we Howard Hughes germaphobes? Is it pride? Is it comfort? Or simply we can not get past the image of the Jones' that was firmly placed on our walls once upon a time that subconsciously stated, "We can't ride anything that takes tokens"....