KLUTZY  TRAVELER

Public transportation is one of the best ways to get around in a new city, especially if the city has an excellent transit system (such as the Paris Metro or London Underground).  

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There are a few cities where public transit is just not worth it unless you are willing to spend half of your trip waiting around for busses and trains - *unless* you are staying near a bus or train stop and everything you want to see is near a bus or train stop.  Edmonton, Canada has a terrible transit system (although they are trying to make it better), and so does Los Angeles.  I have used public transit in both cities, and they will get you to your destination much cheaper than other transit options.  My last trip to LA I used a combination of Uber and public transit and that seemed to work pretty well for what I needed, but in the past I have usually rented a car there (although that has it's own issues - parking in LA can be a real pain!!!).  

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Another thing to keep in mind is that while most public transit systems around the world will allow you to purchase with more than just cash - not all of them take credit card - which is a major pain because when I'm traveling I rarely carry cash let alone coins.  Edmonton's public transit does NOT take credit card (unless you purchase a pass from a vendor or online and not from one of the stand alone machines in the LRT stations).

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It is also almost always cheaper to buy in bulk when you purchase tickets.  You can get a 10 pass or a month long pass in Edmonton for example and save quite a bit over purchasing individual tickets.

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There are also some cities (Paris for example), where you can purchase a pass that allows you to access museums and other attractions as well as public transit - they can often be bought in 1 to 7 day passes - and can be worth it if they include many of the attractions that you plan to visit.  They are generally not worth it if there's only a couple things included that you plan to check out.