Public Transport?

One of my first surprises coming from India to US is the near absence of public transport system, esp. road in Virginia Beach. In India, all cities and towns are well connected through public transport – road and rail. Not everyone in India has a car, so people rely on public transport a lot.
In the US, I had imagined that surviving will be easy without a car as there will be good public transport through which I can get to see lot of places. All such wishful thinking came to a grinding halt when I realized there is not much of road transport here. I realized I cannot even go to church, get to a grocery store without a car.
Thank God, I found so many helping hands in this country – friends, the Office of the International Student Services, classmates, etc. they were there for me whenever I needed something. This never became a problem.