Why the T? 5 reasons

Throughout the summer, I've ditched the trusty Corolla all but a handful of days for a bus-train combo to and from work. The downside? The ride is unquestionably longer. The upsides? They are better and more numerous than I'd imagined, even with limited evening schedules, more crowded trains, and that 10 mph crossing of the Longfellow Bridge on the Red Line. Here are five advantages of going with public transportation, at least for me:

1. Cost. At nearly $4 a gallon, it's about $6 a day just in gas to and from work for me. It's $3.40 with a Charlie Card, cheaper with a $59 monthly pass (some companies have a discount).

2. It's works for my schedule and current job, for the most part. I'm lucky I'm within a half-mile from home of an every-half-hour, air-conditioned bus to Alewife Station on the Red Line. If I go another half mile from home, I can pick up another bus line, too, meaning I've got service every 15 minutes. It's trickier on the way home, and I definitely couldn't have done it living farther from public transportation or in a job where I had to be in different places each day.

3. Few distractions. I can read e-mail on my Blackberry on the way in, catch the Globe in full, or see what the omnipresent Metro has.

4. Saving the carbon for my sons. If my oldest, the one with his driver's license, needs to drive the last few weeks before heading off to college, he can use my carbon.

5. Meeting actual people. A colleague, Donovan Slack, says she tries to meet three people a day. No problem on the T. One person helped me brainstorm on a Cambridge restaurants for a family dinner; an Alabama-born architect talked about Frank Gehry's early days in Boston; a Chinese-born medical researcher related how diabetes, a persistently American problem, was now attacking his increasingly prosperous homeland.

Let us know why you do -- or don't -- take public transportation. Have your say in our comments section below.