On Mass Transit and the Benefits of Urban Reconnaissance

I'm a big fan of mass transit in general. I think it's a much better way of getting around than everyone owning a vehicle, but the way things are set up here in the States it's tough to get around without a car unless you live in a huge metropolitan area, and most citizens of the US do not. I could get into a whole discussion of how stupid it is that I lived next to a train station for five years and never used it because it was either too expensive or the lines never went where I needed them to, but that is neither here nor there.

That said, one of my goals on this upcoming trip is to use mass transit as much as possible, since 1) the UK is well set up for it when compared to America's infrastructure, and 2) I will kill someone if I had to rent a car, what with the whole "other side of the road" situation.

Even the first leg of my journey - the trip to the airport - will be mass transit intensive (to the extent possible in the US). To that end, while checking rail times on the MTA website, I came across this handy-dandy tool.

Trip Planner allows you to enter in your start point and destination within the five boroughs, and it will find you the best route. It gives you a few different choices so you don't have to go near Pelham Bay Park if you don't want to, just in case Robert Shaw and Martin Balsam try to hijack your train.

We'll see how well it works when I do a test run for the purposes of timing and making myself familiar with the route - I rarely go to Queens; I think I went to JFK once when I was a kid and I went to a Mets game, and I've never actually taken the subway out there. What's worse than getting lost on the way to the airport? Who wants to deal with that hassle? In my opinion, a quick recce just makes sense. Adventures in Urban Reconnaisance are most likely forthcoming.

Maybe I'll even take some pictures, who knows...