Adventures in Public Transportation

Sao Paulo is not impossible for the carless. It is just more difficult and time consuming to navigate. There is an excellent metro system which is fast, efficient, and inexpensive. Its main drawback is its reach, with the closest metro station to my place being a twenty-five minute bus ride away. There are also a thousand bus lines (this is not an exaggeration!) that criss-cross the city. The buses are a mix between old and new, and fast and slow. The trick is to catch the bus that is the most direct route between your point of departure and your destination, which is not always as easy as it sounds. Buses are a way of life for millions of Paulistanos who live in the poor peripheries of the city and commute to their jobs in the city. It is not uncommon for people to spend three to four hours (an hour and a half to two hours in each direction) commuting to and from work by bus.

For the first few months, I relied on the guide published by the city which details, street by street, the routes of every single bus line in town. Although extremely useful, relying on this guide has meant that I have often ended up on serious milkruns of buses! My experimentation did, however, lead to me figuring out which bus goes directly to work, which is a pretty positive outcome. It also led to miscalculations and having to walk back kilometres to get to my destination. Ah, live and learn!

About a month ago I realized that there is a central phone number for the city offices with helpful people at the other end of the line who will tell you exactly which bus to take to get between point A and point B. What a service! Taking the bus is now much easier as I manage to catch the best option and not the milkruns. Somehow -- and thankfully -- the buses that I want / need to take are never the most crowded ones!

I think that most of my coworkers think that I am a little bit crazy for using the public transportation system. Known for being crowded, slow, and occasionally robbed, public transportation is not usually the option for people who can afford to drive or take taxis. My personal opinion is that during the day, it is fine to take the bus, while once darkness hits I will take taxis for security reasons. A car would obviously offer a lot more freedom, which leads me to my next topic ....