As I was eating breakfast this morning, I watched a developing story on CNN about three more Southwest Airlines planes that had cracks in their hulls. One of the planes literally had to make an emergency landing in Arizona because of the crack. Since it’s a “developing story,” that’s all the information we were given so far, but it got me thinking: this is why I hate public transportation – however necessary it is.
Think about it: our parents sent us to school on school buses, driven by people they wouldn’t recognize in or out of the bus. We hail cabs in cities or when we’re drunk and get driven by someone who it doesn’t cross our minds could also be unfit to drive. We get on trains and hardly ever see the person taking us from A to B. And planes, well we hear the pilot say “welcome to your flight” and “thank you for flying with us,” but we don’t know him either. We assume all of these people are capable and qualified to get us where we need to be, and most of us don’t even consider the risks.
I absolutely loathe public transportation. If I had a super power, it would be to just appear where I need to be, like I Dream of Jeannie or Dumbledore. That would be so amazing. But since that isn’t the case and I have to publicly transport myself like everyone else, let me tell you of the other things that freak me out.
Bridges are number one on my list of dislikes in the travel department. Being a New York native who goes to school in Delaware, I’ve had to overcome that fear, since I have to cross two bridges to get from one place to the other. My issue with bridges is specifically this: how the hell are they still standing? They were built underwater (mostly) about one hundred years ago. Why has the bottom not deteriorated? With the amount of cars on the roads these days, how have they not collapsed? I know it takes seven years to inspect the George Washington bridge from one side to the other, and it’s required to be checked every 10 years, but still, I just don’t get it. When I drive on a bridge, I have to be in the innermost lane so I can’t see the water. That’s the only way I can cross while still breathing.
Cabs are also high up on my dislike list. First of all, it’s a bitch to get a cab. It’s almost as if they enjoy watching you on the side of the road with your hand up like an idiot trying to get their attention. Or, if you call ahead, they give you absurd amounts of time to wait before they come pick you up. I don’t like depending on other people, which is exactly what you’re doing with cabs, and that adds to my negative feelings. The other issue I have with cabs is I find their drivers to be ultra creepy. I don’t want some random man knowing my life because he’s listening in on my conversation. Therefore, I sit dead quiet in cabs. My mom laughs at me, but hey, I’m scared.
Trains I don’t mind, subways gross me out, and I’m totally afraid of flying. I do it, especially because I feel like I’m not supposed to be in America, that I should be in Europe 99% of the time and I can’t really get there without flying, but I don’t like it. I don’t understand how pilots navigate, I don’t understand how we don’t fall out of the sky and since I can’t sleep on a plane, I feel and hear everything negative like the “turbulence” as they like to call it. Since the news of the planes found with cracks in them – oh boy, I will never forget I learned that this morning.
I sincerely apologize if you’re abroad or traveling sometime soon with mass transit and you read this first. If it freaks you out, just remember these issues have always existed, it’s just you haven’t spent time acknowledging them until now.
