PORTLAND — On Saturday your paper ran an editorial espousing the virtues of using public transportation in the Greater Portland area. I wonder if any of the authors of the piece have actually attempted to do so.

While it is true that the staff and drivers of Metro are cordial and helpful people, the service they provide is third-rate at best. There are six bus lines in Portland and the only transfer point for any of them is in the downtown corridor. That lack of connectivity makes bus use impractical for many.

That there is one bus per line every half-hour, even during rush hour, is absurd. The goal of public transit is to make its use efficient and convenient for commuters. One should not have to plan his day around the infrequent buses; that defeats their very purpose.

Even were people to plan a schedule around that of Metro, they would be sorely disappointed. It is not at all rare for buses to be 10-15 minutes late if they arrive at all.

On several occasions in the last 12 months I have encountered buses that simply did not show up for their scheduled run, meaning it was a full 60 minutes between buses on the same route.

Time is a precious commodity, and for those of us who wish to make Portland home but cannot drive, in my case due to severe visual impairment, minutes and hours of our lives are stolen waiting for buses that cannot be relied on.

I challenge anyone who thinks the Metro system is efficient, comfortable, reliable and convenient to leave the car at home for one week and try to accomplish your daily life using only Metro.

The arguments against a real investment in public transit are always the same: “The ridership doesn’t justify it.” But in Metro’s case it’s a chicken-or-egg problem. The ridership will never increase until it is convenient, reliable and a more pleasant experience.

Right now the only people who use Metro are those with no alternative. Either they can’t drive due to age (the elderly or students), physical or mental disability or court order or their personal finances prohibit them from affording a car.

I grew up in Portland, I love this city and I am proud to be a new member of the legal community in Maine. I also spent many years living in Boston and San Francisco. I understand Portland is neither of those cities, I wouldn’t want it to be in many respects. However, when it comes to mass transit they have it right.

Bostonians may complain about the “T,” the colloquial name for the Boston subway system, but the fact is that the vast majority of those who live within a few miles of a T stop will forgo driving into work for the convenience and affordability of the T. The same is true in San Francisco, one can go anywhere between Santa Cruz and Napa Valley without his own transportation.

The Downeaster train has been a great success and a boon to Portland’s economy since December 2001. The train will soon expand its service to Brunswick and perhaps eventually beyond.

Portlanders are clearly willing to use mass transit if it is convenient and reliable. The large numbers of people using the Portland Transportation Center on Thompson’s Point are proof of that. If Portland made an investment in itself, we could unclog our streets, cut down on pollution and become a much friendlier city for residents and tourists alike.

Yes, it costs money in the short term but we need to have a more long-term view of the positive impacts of a real investment in mass transit.

We talk often about wanting to retain young professionals in Maine rather than continuing to watch the brain drain of the last 20 years. Making Portland a more livable city by increasing the ease, comfort and convenience of public transportation would make that empty rhetoric more realistic for many.

I applaud the sentiment of Saturday’s editorial. Unfortunately it was written without any connection to the reality of the unpleasant, inconvenient and unreliable Metro system.

Until things change don’t waste your life or your productivity waiting for buses that may never come. Your time is too precious for that.

Invest in Portland’s future, make drastic improvements to mass transit and then the July 2 editorial will ring true.

– Special to The Press Herald