As a radical lefty (and a student, which put me below poverty level except students are excluded from poverty statistics...) I insisted on riding the bus in Riverside, CA, and the bus there was definitely for poor people and (not necessarily poor) black/hispanic kids commuting to school. Barbara has a story of an old lady who got on a bus once and loudly apologised and said that she did not usually take the bus, that it was just this once because her son couldn't give her a ride.

I don't know whether it's snobbery, but how many Americans have never ridden on public transport?

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides