In my parents’ day, you only had a few options to get around the city if you didn’t have a car or a bicycle.
At least in our city there isn’t a train or subway system, so the options for public transportation were either buses or taxi cabs.
My parents rarely hired cab drivers because the cost was so incredibly high. Luckily we had a car growing up, but I started riding public buses in high school because it was the only way I could get to an adjacent city when I didn’t have a driver’s license or a car of my own. But my current city largely lacks public transportation, especially in the rural outskirts. Unless you have a car or a motorcycle, you better hope that you can pedal fast on a bike. Calling an Uber driver isn’t always a perfect solution either. While Uber is often cheaper than city cab services, it’s still by no means cheap, particularly if you have a limited income. On top of that, you have no idea what the indoor air quality is going to be like when you jump into a random Uber driver’s car. Sometimes the air smells clean, but other times there’s a strong musty mold odor that gives me a strong physical reaction in my sinuses and respiratory system. Uber needs to pay for portable air purifiers to give to their drivers to maintain better indoor air inside the car for sensitive passengers. I recently purchased a portable air purifier for my own car and I was amazed at the immediate improvement that it brought. At least I have fewer allergy symptoms when I’m inside my car.