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Carbon footprints and paycheck-consuming gas prices are motivating drivers to leave their cars at home.

So if you're a little nervous about relying on public transportation, relax and leave your worries at home. Let us show you how it's done.

Sun Tran offers 206 buses and 38 routes reaching from Marana and Oro Valley to Tucson International Airport, and as far east as North Harrison Road to the Casino of the Sun on the South Side.

Eleven Express routes operate only during rush hours Monday through Friday and cater specifically to suburbanites looking for an easy way to commute Downtown or to a transit center. Express riders rave about how easy and relaxing their commutes into work are, but even they were nervous about depending on someone else to get them to work on time.

Vail resident Raquel Goodrich wasn't sure when she started riding a month ago if she should pay cash and if she should pay ahead of time or on the bus.

"My first day I had a backup plan," said Goodrich, a project planner for The Planning Center. "My husband had that day off of work."

Sun Tran coach operator Patricia Denault, an 18-year veteran, said she's amazed at how many people are shy about riding the bus for the first time.

"We have so many newcomers, and they don't know the city and they have a lot of questions that seem minor, but to them they're huge," she said. "When they take a little trip and get that fear out of them, then they're willing to go more."

Goodrich said the Express routes are the way to go.

Expresses offer plenty of seats — although hogging more than one seat is frowned on — and a choice between quiet reflection or friendly banter, depending on who's a morning person.

"I've been surprised at how easy and nice it is to sit back and read and relax," she said.

Express routes offer commuters from the far flung corners of Tucson a chance to take a bus directly to a transit center or Downtown without possibly having to stop at every designated location every quarter-mile. Expresses instead stop only at locations designated by an "Express" sign — usually no more than six along a given route.

Of course, all buses stop only at designated locations if a passenger wants to get on or off. Riders can transfer to another route at one of three transit centers. They also can get off anywhere near where routes overlap or cross each other and catch another bus.

Each bus is equipped with a bike rack on its front, able to carry up to two bikes at a time. Newspapers are sold on most bus routes, available in a plastic bin next to a coin box asking riders to use the honor system.

Routes operate on average from start to finish in about 35-40 minutes. The shortest Express route, 162 in Oro Valley, takes about 25 minutes to reach the Tohono Transit Center east of Tucson Mall. The longest routes pick up riders on the Northwest Side and the far East Side, and go to the Aero Park area, servicing Raytheon and Bombardier employees. Those routes, the 180 and 186, last a little more than an hour.

But when commuters are facing 45 minutes or more in hectic traffic, 15 minutes more may not seem like such a bad idea if someone else does the driving. Money saved on fuel and parking Downtown is an added incentive.

Goodrich figured she's saving about $1,000 a year by taking the Express 82 to and from work.

Rather than driving 60 miles round trip daily, she now drives 15 miles to and from the Park and Ride lot at East Speedway and North Harrison Road. The Express drops her at the Ronstadt Transit Center at East Congress Street and Sixth Avenue, where she walks the short distance to her office at 110 S. Church Ave.

Joe Lahiff, a 34-year veteran coach operator with Sun Tran, said a common obstacle to riding the bus is the fear that something is going to go wrong combined with a preconceived idea of the kind of people who take the bus.

"Most of the people are going to work, shopping or school," he said.

The Park and Ride Lot at Speedway and North Harrison fills up before 7 each morning, with people waiting in cars before the bus arrives. Other riders are conveniently dropped off five minutes before the Express 82 departs for Downtown.

The driver welcomes riders carrying coffee, books and iPods — earbuds firmly in place — each weekday morning before heading Downtown along East Broadway. The noise of the bus engine sounds like a loud hum, but everyone seems too sleepy to converse, anyway.

It's a different story in Marana.

There the Express 391 picks up a bubbly bunch at the Park and Ride lot at North Cortaro Road and Arizona Pavilions, near the Wal-Mart Supercenter. It takes Interstate 10 Downtown.

Some riders bring their coffee and books, but the quiet folks mostly sit at the back of the bus. Near the front, everyone knows everybody's name and shares stories of family, shopping trips and work.

It's laughter, friendly banter and stories of what the family did over the weekend. That group isn't deterred by any would-be wallflowers.

"You get somebody who's friendly and outgoing and you start talking," said Janet Peterson, who works at the Pima County Attorney's Office. "Before you know it, you've struck up a friendship."

It's that camaraderie that non-riders don't get to see, Lahiff said. Riders and bus drivers alike are willing to help first-timers.

Lahiff and Denault are part of a team of operators at Sun Tran who offer training for groups of first-timers. They visit senior living communities and schools. But anyone can call Sun Tran and request help, including senior citizens or those with mobility issues. The company's Web site also offers a "Trip Planner," where users can input their starting point and destination and get directions.

Peterson said she didn't know where to board the bus when she first started riding, so she just called Sun Tran. She recommends carrying a schedule in case riders miss their bus. Her friend Judy Hughes is a private-school teacher who also commutes from Marana daily. She sits back and knits socks on her way to and from work because "I'm not carrying around an Afghan."

"Once you get on and off and get to where you need to go," she said, "it becomes a no-brainer."