This week on Hack Your City, we’re not taking hacks for one city—we’re taking hacks for all of them. We want your tips on taking public transit, wherever you live. For example! In New York, a free ride on the Staten Island Ferry is a well-known alternative to a trip to the Statue of Liberty. But a less appreciated ride is the Roosevelt Island Tram, just a $2.75 swipe on your MetroCard.
We want to hear the best thing about your local transit. San Francisco has its open-air cable cars. The Bay Area has its drinking-friendly Caltrain. Portland has great views from the aerial tram. London has its gorgeous double-decker buses. New York has its hidden subway station.
But we want to hear how you deal with the worst things too: Which crowded stops you should get on ahead of, which train lines you always avoid, how to use a slightly expired bus pass, how to make a finicky turnstile accept your fare. And the worse your city’s transit system is, the more we want to hear how you make it work for you.
We also want to hear your rules of etiquette, whether or not the people in your city actually follow them. How does everyone behave so well on a Tokyo train? How should everyone behave on a Chicago bus? How do you survive in a tough transit system without being a dick?
What outside tools do you use for transit—what’s the best app, map, or other guide? And have you ever found a surprisingly good hobby on your train, ferry, other than reading your phone?
Tell us in the comments, and we’ll highlight the best tips, secrets, recommendations, and rants as they come in.