I nearly forgot. In keeping with the previous post...
For an all-too-real description of what it's like to ride public transportation, check out Mathew Baldwin of Defective Yeti fame. I laughed tremendously at his posts long before I took my maiden voyage on a public bus, then I shot gallons of funny out of my nose while taking the bus, thinking about the posts he had written. It's kind of like parenting: you can never fully understand it till you've been pooped on.
I've cued up all of his bus entries here.