When I was a kid, I used to go visit family in Dayton, Ohio. We would take a day to "go downtown" and hop on the local electrically powered trollybus, pay some minimal fee and get a comfortable ride from suburbia to city. We'd go and walk around and hit a few department stores, eat some food, maybe take the bus a couple more times, and then grab a trollybus to get back home.
It was easy, cheap and just worked. I understand some of the system is still active in the city. It's kind of mindblowing to me that there's only 5 such systems in all of the United States.