M’hijito lives a quarter-mile from the train line and, if he gets some money and gets admitted to graduate school, plans to ride the train out to the Great Desert University. For him it will be a huge convenience–and if GDU continues to offer free passes for students, it will represent a huge savings. The train goes past several grocery stores between 7th Avenue and Tempe, so in theory he could hop off and pick up some food on his way home. Or he could ride all the way up to the train station at the Target/Costco/Walmart shopping center, which is about the same distance from his house as the 7th & Camelback stop.

With the rumors of widespread layoffs constantly on the wind, I’m skeptical that I will be at GDU long enough to use up a year-long pass. Also, of course, it will be another three years before the leg that goes by my house is built, assuming funding to the thing isn’t cut. So I would have to park my car at my son’s house and walk to the train stop (not on your LIFE would I leave my only vehicle sitting in the park-&-ride at 19th and Montebello!).

It’s not a very safe neighborhood — a good friend was murdered in that area by young gang-bangers who thought it would be funny to beat up a cripple and run their car back and forth over his head several times.

As you can imagine, I feel safer with several layers of metal between me and my fellow human beings. The neighborhood abutting mine, where the new train station will be built, is no better — a couple days after I experimented with the bus, a woman was abducted and raped from the very bus stop where I stood around for a half hour. Even though I’m (mercifully) no longer a pretty young girl, there are psychotics who will attack elderly women because they hate women, and muggers deliberately target the elderly because they see us as weak and unable to resist.

Couple that vulnerability with the inconvenience and cost, and I find myself wishing we could have the government mandate electric cars, please, instead of investing in expensive mass transit that many Americans will never ride.

and @Ted and Quiet: Presumably the trolley has a lot smoother ride than the bus. The one time I rode the bus to Tempe (a two-hour ride each way, to make the 25-minute drive), the tooth-rattling ride rendered reading and working on a laptop out of the question.

It might be worth advertising on Craig’s list for a carpool partner for Mary. Though obviously she couldn’t trade off driving, she could pitch in with gas, which undoubtedly would be appreciated.

Mary rides the trolley every day, because of where I volunteer it’s not feasible for me. The trolley plus bus system uses up five hours per day for her; add to that eight hours at work at ASU, plus an hour for lunch — and her working day eats up 14 hours. She reads a Kindle on the trolley and the bus; but, she’s still got a mile walk home from the end of the bus route. She had to give up driving because of her eyesight.

What’s the alternative in Phoenix?

Life is not user friendly.