I don't get how riding the bus is a punishment.
I rode the bus all through high school, because even after I was old enough to get my license, I didn't have a car. And even if I did, for my senior year I went to a high school that was ~15 miles away. A round trip every day would have been more than a gallon of gas, every day. Screw that, I would have ridden the school bus anyway. Just like now, I generally leave my car parked at home and ride the town bus to get to campus.
