Yes yes, I know the topic has popped up before, plenty. But may I please be allowed to flag it up once more, because it’s causing me industrial-quality headaches right now? -
Dear H.Os : If you’re going to tick the “Accessible By Public Transport” or the very generous “Sitters Can Use Your Car” boxes, please make some reference to it elsewhere in the listing! - So we wannabe-sitters can know it wasn’t a casual “Oh, may as well check the box!” thing, or a slip of the finger. I’ve had to withdraw from two applications recently where these boxes were checked, one because it turned out the car was not, actually, included and one because “Accessible by public transport” meant there was a bus stop a mile away, with two buses a day, not going anywhere remotely useful.
It really matters to me that I can get around effectively, day-by-day, on public transport - or that use of a car is genuinely on offer.
Thanks for listening. #endplea
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Were these new HO’s to the site? When we were brand new and filling out our profile and checking the boxes, we thought the checked boxes would show up in the profile. We learned later it doesn’t, so we had to add that information.
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No, both HOs were old hands. Thing is, the checked boxes do show up in the listings. But I’ve learned the hard way not to trust a mere tick in a box, if nothing’s said about that amenity in the HO’s comments. Hence my plea to HOs not to rely on just checking the box, but spell it out for dumbos like me “You can use our car” or “There’s plenty of public transport”..
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I also rely on public transit, and I super appreciate the listings that have the nearby bus stops/bus lines listed somewhere so I can check the schedule myself before applying. Or even if there’s Lyft/Uber/local taxi services available, that’s useful to know, too!
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Non-driver HO here, so my profile is discusses transit. I’m in the US, and IME, those who primarily drive (majority of Americans outside of New York City) cars rarely know what kind of transit their area offers.
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That’s the impression I get. I’m UK-based and looking for sits in the U.S. I understand there are very few you can do without a (hired) car, so it’s crucial that the Public Transport/Car Available options are serious.
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I recommend anyone unfamiliar with an area to google “getting around city x by transit” - should bring up the region’s transit authority, possibly some local transit-related sites. An alternative is to check out the city’s subreddit and see if there are transit-related discussions.
The sad reality is that the transit outside of cities is often, shall we say, less than robust. East coast does better than the rest, but the US is very car-centric (I grew up in a suburb o Philadelphia that had a train to the city and so-so transit to other towns, but nothing within the town itself, so it did not help with things like groceries).
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I have lived in California and Oregon my entire life.
I am confident that most major cities in the US have decent public transportation services. Searching by County in the US is the best way to find sits that are actually IN the major city that you want.
San Fransisco: San Francisco County
Seattle: King County
Portland: Multnomah County
Where are you wanting to go in the US?
Since I live in Portland, OR, I am very familiar with public transport there. Within the city, there are tons of options! No car needed. If you want to visit some of outlying areas (beach, mountain, rivers), there are buses to take you there! It can be done with a bit of research.
We spend a lot of time in the San Francisco area, and I can say the same about SF. No car needed in the city. Buses, ferries, and trains abound to get you into the outlying areas.
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What is the current maximum distance threshold to the nearest public transportation, in order for it to be selectable in listings?
…if there is one, might be up for individual negotiation too😅
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Absolutely true that many HO don’t regularly use transit so are not the best source of availability, in my experience. When we rent a car or the HO supplies a car I am also often clueless about local public transit. We get the address and use transit apps to see what and how far transit is before accepting a sit.
In a perfect world the home owners would know the needs of the sitters and we would know the needs of the household. Your mileage may vary.
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This is the sort of thing to discuss in the video call before confirming a sit. It’s one of the questions we always ask - “what does accessible by public transport mean”. Then they can clarify. Once the HOs said, oh, I guess I shouldn’t include that, there’s only one bus in the morning and one in the evening, but you can use our car. That worked out very well. When HOs respond with something like “the stop is half a block away” we get the exact location and then google the town name + bus schedule and see what it looks like.
We are on the platform as HOs as well as sitters. Our HO profile clearly says the bus is a block away and there’s a bus every 10 minutes and you can easily get anywhere in the city from our place. We live in an urban location and do not own a car. I give sitters info on joining the local car co-op if they wish.
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I’m sorry but I have to disagree with your post. I have lived in Houston, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Palm Springs CA, a suburb of Philadelphia, and a suburb of Sarasota/Bradenton, FL. While the inner cities have some public transport options, public transport is notoriously bad in most areas of the US outside of NYC, San Francisco, and a few other downtown metro areas. I would definitely encourage anyone applying for a US based sit to either rent their own car, secure a car from the HO, or carefully research public transport options. There is also the issue of safety. Since the USA is such a car-based society, public transport in many cities/towns only serves the very poor areas where people cannot afford their own cars. These are not necessarily areas where one would want to ride alone on public transport, especially at night.
To clarify, I am talking about “in the cities” versus “in the suburbs.”
I agree that people who want to use public transportation should do their own research.
We use public transportation a lot when we travel and have found it to be safe, efficient, and affordable.
With cell phones, it is really easy to take public transportation. The mapping programs tell you exactly where to go and when the next bus/train is leaving.
Houston and LA have lousy public transportation. Only a handful of cities we’ve been to in the US have safe and reliable public transportation.
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Thankyou. I have, of course, tried to research public transit in the cities in which I’m interested - but it can be a long and confusing business. Especially when you don’t know exactly where the house/apartment is..
Public transport in England is my favourite pet subject! Ask me anything… it’s safe and plentiful and normalised as a wide range of people use it in cities and semi-rural areas. However you do need to use Apps (Moovit is a good one as is Trainline). Semi rural areas might have limited buses. City transport is mostly brilliant- the most public transport journeys taken per population outside of London is in my own City of Brighton on the south coast. Hire cars often have stickers on the dashboard saying ‘no dogs’ so beware unless the HO can provide a carry case or crate for the boot. We love it when HOs have a doggy car and have insured the car not the drivers, the dogs get a far better experience if we can take them out and about.
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Can’t agree with you on LA. we’ve taken pet sits there without a car from Sherman Oaks in the Valley to Culver City near the water and we’ve taken buses and their train system all over the place. They may not always be on time, but they functioned well.
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It must depend where in LA your sit is. We lived in Pasadena and public transportation within Pasadena and to downtown LA was decent. However if you wanted to go to the beach or anywhere other than downtown, it wasn’t.
We also lived in Long Beach. Public transport within Long Beach is ok if you live along one of the major arteries, but if not, it wasn’t so good. And going between Long Beach and downtown, you have to go through Compton, not a great area. Same thing trying to go between Long Beach and LAX.
The only point I’m trying to make is that it’s pretty important to research route maps and think about where you’d want to go. Also research schedules and how long it takes to get there because if you have to change transport lines, it can take 2-3 times longer than driving by car.
There is a reason why Southern CA is known as having a strong car culture. Public transport isn’t a great option in many areas of Los Angeles and Orange Countirs.