Iman Shaikh

Hey Iman! I'm glad to hear you've been taking an interest to take buses more often. As you said, it can be a huge hassle when you're carrying luggage with you on the bus. This is probably because the bus might be full at the time, and you're stuck lugging it around and try to make sure you don't invade another person's space on the bus.  Back at home in the East LA area, I would often take buses to get to a park, meet up with a friend, go to the mall, etc. In the beginning, it was more of a mandatory thing because back when I didn't have a car, my parents were not able to take me to places, so they suggested I go on the bus. As I got older, I realized how better it would be for the environment if I took the bus when needed. This turned into a habit in which I would take the bus when time permitted me to and reduce my carbon footprint. I try my best to take the bus as much as I can, but when I don't have the time to wait for a bus, I have no other choice than to take my car. Overall, I'm glad you had a good experience! 

PS. This source I found from the UCLA transportation website also talks about the benefits are of taking a bus. Just in case, anyone else was curious or was interested in knowing.

https://www.transportation.ucla.edu/blog/how-riding-bus-benefits-everyone

I really related to this post Iman! I have been taking a couple of flights recently myself and found myself constantly taking $30+ uber rides back to my apartment when my roommates can't pick me up. I have known that bus rides are extremely cheap, even when the distance increases. However, when I return home from flights, it's usually the night time where I feel more uncomfortable taking a bus at night by myself. Also, at the moment being in a bus filled with people makes me a bit anxious just because I would be worried if anyone sat next to me due to COVID. How do you deal with that? Is this not as much as a worry for you as saving money is? I really do agree that the LA transportation system could do better, I wish lawmakers would do more to make that happen. LA barely has bicycle lanes, buses that are pretty confusing to follow if there are multiple routes, and just not the most friendly user experience. How do you feel about traveling alone? I feel like I never used transportation by myself except later in college, but I feel that I need to take more of an initiative with taking public transportation just because of the reduced impact busses have on the environment than cars. According to the source National Express Transit, "Buses emit 20% less carbon monoxide, 10% as much hydrocarbons, and 75% as much nitrogen oxides" than single passenger cars. As these gasses are main contributors for global warming, it is definitely better for the environment if we just take more bus rides than uber rides. However, I wish to explore more alternatives for safer night travels to ensure that I feel comfortable taking public transport by myself. 



Sources:
9 Benefits of Public Transportation - National Express Transit

https://www.nationalexpresstransit.com 

Hi! I actually recently had the same issue this past winter season with our utility bill. When it was October, our utility bill was around $9 dollars, split among 3 people and now it has jumped to around $40 dollars for January split among 3 people for our gas bill. I have noticed that whenever I am busy, I find myself not paying attention to the appliances that I use. For example, when I need to run to class, I notice myself keeping the lights on or not even turning off the lights at the kitchen after I make myself coffee. It also doesn't help that we have no natural sunlight at our apartment, we constantly have to turn the lights. I am not sure of any alternatives of this, especially when our apartment is so dark during the winter times. Also, our apartment does not have any AC either, so when it is the summer, we constantly have to plug in several fans. One solution that we can have is just unplugging our devices when we are not using them. Another solution if it gets too hot in our apartment that I want to apply is to cover our windows. This is a pretty cost effective method that we could all apply as college students because many of our apartments don't have ACs. Another way to save money and reduce the amount of money being spent, we can clean out our air filters. Also, I am trying very hard to spend less time in the shower. At the moment, I take around 12 minutes in the shower. However, I think I can get it down to around 8 minutes, especially if I stop the water when I am shampooing and conditioning. So much water is spent on opening the bottle that I feel that I can save water and make the whole experience more efficient. Some of my roommates and other people in other apartments have expressed that they use as much water as they want because we don't pay for water but I feel like this is very wasteful and try to tell them that that's not the best option. Hopefully I can convince them not to do so.