On a recent business trip to Washington, I landed at Reagan National Airport in suburban Arlington, Va., walked from the terminal to the Metro station inside the airport and took a train to Dupont Circle. Total cost for my off-peak train trip: $1.85.

We're not so lucky here in South Florida. Commercial transportation to and from the airports isn't cheap, and public transit certainly isn't easy.

I have, however, found a fairly economical shuttle service from Miami to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Like many North Miami-Dade residents, I often fly out of Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami for a cheaper fare or better connection.

When Fort Lauderdale airport had $3-per-day economy parking, leaving my car there for an entire vacation wasn't prohibitively expensive. But now that the ``cheap'' parking is $9 a day, that no longer works.

So I'm taking the GO Airport Shuttle, which costs $18 to $21 one way per person for a shared ride to or from my door on Miami's Upper East Side to Fort Lauderdale airport (www.floridalimo.com, 954-561-8888 or 800-244-8252; rates from farther south may be higher).

There are trade-offs. You need to reserve a day ahead and leave your house early to allow time for the shuttle to pick up other passengers. If you have a group, you might get a better deal reserving a private car from GO Shuttle.

The cheapest transportation I've found to MIA is the SuperShuttle, also about $20 each way to go about one-quarter of the distance (www.supershuttle.com, 305-871-2000).

Maybe if we all lobby our county commissioners, we can get affordable public transportation to our airports within our lifetimes. On second thought, you might have better luck persuading a friend or neighbor to drive you.

Teresa Mears is the publisher of five On the Cheap blogs including Miami Fl on the Cheap and Fort Lauderdale on the Cheap. She also blogs about savings for MSN Money's ``Smart Spending.'' You can follow her on Twitter @miamicheap.

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