Category Archives: living the life

Friday was a 234

This week was a week of obsession with numbers. I think it had something to do with the release of Prince’s 3121, which I am listening to as I type. I apologize to my neighbors for the liberties I have taken with the volume control on my computer speakers.

But I digress.

I have taken to keeping track of all the buses I ride in a day and (for reasons I cannot fully explain) adding up the numbers. I assign the final sum to the day–a sort of reverse numerology. A higher number usually means that it was a fairly busy bus day, but not necessarily. Suburban routes are three-digit numbers, so they add up quickly. In the days when I worked in Redmond, it would have been possible for me to ride to work and back only and still “earn” a 1090. Yesterday, on the other hand, I ran around from morning to night and earned a paltry 234. Here’s how I did it:

8
43
55
55
14
3
26
26
4

I also did a fair amount of walking. Which reminds me: So far, today’s been a zero. On sunny days when I don’t have to go to work or anyplace in particular, I like to rely on my feet.

…and chocolate for energy

Back when I was considering going car-free, I feared that becoming a bus chick would also cause me to become a homebody. I knew I could get to work and to my regular haunts on the bus, but what about a party in Renton on Saturday night, or a reading at an obscure bookshop in Ballard? I worried that I would decide events like these were not worth the trouble and give up the active life I had grown used to.

I am happy to report that, three years into this experiment, my life is as active as ever. This is largely thanks to:

1) Metro’s Trip Planner. All I have to know is where I am and where I’m going, and Trip Planner does the rest.
2) Flexcar. I rent a Flexcar only about once every other month, but when I use it, I need it. (Sometimes, you just can’t get there on the bus.) If I didn’t have the option of borrowing a car from time to time, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to try living without one.
3) A bus pal. My fiancé, Adam, is also car-free. Having a partner to wait with on those cold, late-night, and out-of-the-way excursions makes all the difference.
4) Bus ruts. I tend to ride the same routes over and over. After too many weeks of this, I get bored and look forward to any excuse to try a new number.

On Sunday, armed with my bus pal, a laptop, and an itch to get out of a longer-than-normal bus rut, I went from my home in the Central District to church (also in the Central District) to the University District to run an errand, then downtown to run another errand, and finally, to West Seattle to visit my family. That’s at least as much as an average person accomplishes on an average Sunday, but I got exercise and talked to strangers and felt the sun on my face, and I didn’t have to fight traffic or pay for parking.

American convenience, Bus-Chick style

Much as I love my life on the bus, errands can sometimes be a hassle. Take grocery shopping. I like to buy produce from local, organic farmers, and back when I had a car, I always did. These days, my success rate isn’t quite as high. Though my favorite co-op is less than a mile and a half from my house, I have to take two buses to get there, and sometimes (a lot of times) I decide it’s not worth the trouble. As a result, for the past few years, I have found myself either a) not eating much produce, or b) trying to find something organic at the nearby, for-profit grocery store.

Yesterday, I signed up for Pioneer Organics, a service that delivers local, organic produce to your door. Though I generally avoid excessive use of delivery services (What’s the point of me not having a car if I pass the driving on to someone else?), I made an exception in this case. Pioneer delivers to each neighborhood on a specific day of the week–much more efficient from a fuel-use perspective than the on-demand method of most grocery delivery services. Also, since most of the produce sold at chain grocery stores is shipped from far away, and since Pioneer only buys its produce from local farmers, I figure that ordering Pioneer’s delivery actually burns fewer total fossil fuels than walking to the Red Apple down the street.

Of course, I’ll still have to head to the co-op every once in a while–that is, unless Pioneer wants to throw a box of laundry detergent on that truck.

A perfect bus storm

This is how my fiance, Adam, referred to his commute yesterday. His first morning bus, a route that runs every 10-15 minutes, was 30 minutes late (the result of a rare combination of frequent lift use and an abundance of school children). Of course, this meant that he missed his transfer at Montlake–a few times–and was later than he wanted to be to work.

He left his office in Redmond at 8:10 (yeah, tell me about it), but thanks to last night’s 520 closure, his 8:17 bus didn’t arrive until well after 9:00. The rerouted bus got him downtown at an off time (when none of his preferred buses was expected), so he took one that dropped him off almost half a mile from his house and walked the rest of the way.

He finally arrived home at 10:35, at which time he me called to say, “I’ve got something good for your blog.”

So he did.

The world, according to Bus Chick

In April of 2003, I made a choice to sell my car and use the bus as my primary form of transportation. (To find out why, read my first Real Change column.)

In these first three “car-free” years, I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Seattle has one of the best bus systems in the country.
Though there is certainly room for improvement, having ridden the bus in many other cities (including Houston, Detroit, San Francisco, Boston, and Aspen), I can honestly say that King County Metro leads the pack.

2. It is possible (if not always convenient) to live here without a car.
Of course, it is not possible for everyone (delivery drivers, for example), but for most who are willing to make a few small changes to the way they live–and one big change to the way they think–it is a viable option. And now that Seattle has a car-sharing program (for those dog food/fertilizer/Costco runs) there is almost no risk to try it.

3) Future development of our city should focus on accommodating public transportation–not cars.
Part of the reason people are so shocked when I tell them I don’t have a car is because the cities and neighborhoods in our region were not constructed with the car-free individual in mind. From now on, they need to be. We must grow more efficiently and create an infrastructure that accommodates walking and riding–that is, unless we’d rather see more cars on the road.

4) Seattle really, really needs rapid transit.
Buses are good–certainly far better than the alternative of everyone driving alone–but let’s face it: They’re only part of the solution. A truly successful system integrates buses with a mode of transportation that is both nonpolluting and independent of traffic.

If you ride the bus in this region, want to ride the bus in this region, or just want to know what it’s like to ride the bus in this region, this blog is for you. You will find resources and information about our current bus system (for example how to get started, get around, or find the best solution to a transportation problem).

If you are interested in the future of public transportation or the future of this (beautiful but rapidly changing) city, this blog is for you. You will find information about current and upcoming transit projects, regular analyses of the gaps in service, and information about development projects that will influence the viability of a long-term transit solution.

Finally, if you are interested in your fellow citizens, this blog is definitely for you. You will find regular stories about all of the brilliant, insane, angry, kind, confused, beautiful people I encounter and observe every day.

If you’ve gotten this far, I hope it is because you are at least somewhat interested in coming back. I hope you will do so often.

Happy reading!