When you are living in a big city, like Phoenix, Arizona, a reliable method of transportation is a major necessity. If you are unable to get around in a big city, it limits your reach to the open opportunities available in the area. This can be detrimental to your financial future.
You will need dependable transportation to get to and from work, unless you have a work from home job. Imagine not being able to travel to a job you worked extremely hard to secure in the first place. That’s stressful! You already know how that scenario ends. The constraints on your ability to get around in Phoenix could completely sour your outlook on living here.
In this article, we’ll go over the types of transportation available to the people, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Public Transportation
If you do not own your own vehicle or if you do not have regular access to a vehicle, the city of Phoenix does offer a couple of public transportation methods for your convenience under Valley Metro. Valley Metro offers regional bus, light rail, and paratransit services all year round.
In order to access the services available via Valley Metro, an individual would need to pay the required fare. Fares can be purchased online, at fare vending machines on light rail play forms, and at local retailers like Circle K, Fry’s, and Food City.
If you need assistance learning the routes of the buses and light rail, Valley Metro has a few options to help. You could call the mom customer service team, if you are someone, who prefer human interaction. However, if you have smartphone and are looking for quick information you could also access a handful of online tools including; Ridekick and TripPlanner.
The pro of using public transportation is it’s like a pre paid service of transportation. There are reasonable costs for both one time one way travels and monthly passes for month to month use.
The con of using public transportation is even though the services are offered everyday, there are times in the day in which service is unavailable. This can leave you possibly stranded if you happen to need transportation during those times. Also, because it is a shared service, there are certain rules riders must follow. There’s no eating or drinking onboard public transit, for example.
Rideshare or Carpool
Thanks to the continued advancement of technology, there are plenty of opportunities to share a ride with others. Through the apps Lyft and Uber, a person can easily order transportation on demand from their smartphone. Locally, in Phoenix we still have the ‘old fashioned’ ride share services or taxis. Some taxi companies you can find her will include; Yellow Cab, Arizona taxi, and VIP Taxi. I call these companies old fashioned based on the fact the were around pre-Uber, but they offer services fairly similar to what you’ll find from their app based competitors.
There’s another ride share option similar, but different and that is carpooling. With most job positions offered in Arizona, there is some type of carpool program in place. Either the company will help you find co-workers willing to carpool with you or they might offer incentives or benefits to employees, who can arrange carpool with their co-workers.
The pro of ride share and car pool is often the convenience of the services. In ride sharing, the apps usually offer availability 24/7, so long as there are drivers available to complete the ride. The same could be available for carpooling depending on the arrangements made with the others in the carpool agreement.
The con of ride share and car pool, you’re left at the mercy of the car owner and with ride share specifically frequent riding can get expensive.
Buy or Lease a Car
Depending on the long term goals you have set for your stay in Phoenix, Arizona, leasing or buying a car could be a better option for your transportation needs. There are plenty of car dealership establishments in the valley that are looking to take care of your personal and business transportation needs.
The pro of buying or leasing a car is the ability to come and go as you please, the ability to make the vehicle yours, even if only temporarily, and it opens the door to alternative income options.
The con of buying or leasing a car is you are held majority responsible, if not all, of the vehicle. With out proper maintenance and upkeep, the vehicle once used as an asset can quickly become a costly liability.
Rent A Car
If your stay in Arizona is expected to be a short term stay, renting a car might be a better option. Locally, you can find big rental companies like Enterprise and Hertz to satisfy you transportation needs. Thanks to technology, you also even have the option of Turo, which unlike other rental car places, you pick the exact car you want to rent versus the vehicle type.
The pro of using a rental car is the majority of the responsibility of the rental car company. They often offer deals to those, who book the rental online instead of in person.
The con of using a rental car they sometimes come with limitations on things like mileage. Also, because a rental is not your car you have to be cautious of maintaining the quality of the interior and exterior of the vehicle or risk costly fees.
Rent a Scooter or Bike
Once again we can thank technology for the ability to rent a bike or scooter on demand in the Phoenix Metro area. Companies like Bird and Razor make it possible for you to rent bikes and scooters for short distance local traveling. The way it works is you download the company’s app, you locate the nearest available bike or scooter, and create a reservation for the needed time period. You usually find them in the most densely populated areas in the valley like Downtown Phoenix.
The pro of renting a bike or scooter is there are no long term obligations and it’s a fun method of short distance travel for groups. You can combine this transportation with public transportation for day of local exploration.
The con of renting a bike or scooter is it’s really only convenient for short distance travels. Not to say you couldn’t arrange long distance travels using this method.
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