Carrots and sticks

From Emily in Fremont:
A map of the businesses and activities accessible from the 44, stop by stop. This is a brilliant idea (apparently taken from NYC’s map of restaurants by subway stop) and a great public service, but as far as I know, it’s not currently available for any other route. Maybe I’ll try my hand at making one…

Frank Fitzgerald

From Chris in Port Townsend:
A map of gas prices by region. It’s not really news, but it’s interesting to see who’s paying the most (no green whatsoever in Washington).

About that 4 ride home…

Several giggly, slightly drunk Seattle U students got on with us at Benaroya. They sat in the front near the bus driver and started asking her lots of questions. She was very pleasant and tolerant, considering their level of annoyingness. Here’s a sample of the conversation:

Giggly Seattle U girl: Do you ever have, like, crazy people getting on?
Bus driver: Let’s put it this way: I stop at Harborview.

Foot ferry fireworks

Yesterday, we went to West Seattle to spend the holiday with my parents (because we love them–not their great view). We took the 4 downtown, stopped at the Market for food and flowers, and then headed down to Pier 55 to catch the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. We got to my parent’s place at about 5:45 and spent the evening cooking, watching soccer, and eventually, watching the fireworks shows. When the shows were over, we ate ice cream, said our goodbyes, and caught the last ferry back downtown. Lucky for us, the ferry lined up perfectly with the 4, and we were in the house before midnight.

Even without Elliot-Bay-adjacent parents, the water taxi is a great way to see the fireworks. The ferry takes you right to Seacrest Park, which is a prime firework-watching location (you can see both shows). Yesterday it ran on a Saturday schedule, which means it ran once an hour, leaving Pier 55 on the half hour, and leaving Seacrest park on the hour. The last run out of Seacrest Park left at 11:00–about half an hour after the show was over.

Try it next year. I think you’ll find it preferable to driving. There’s no searching for parking, no leaving before the show’s over to beat traffic (I actually saw lots of people doing this yesterday), no camping out all day just to claim a decent parking spot (unless, of course you feel like barbecuing or people-watching, in which case you can take an early ferry). The best part: A nighttime boat ride across Elliott Bay is pretty romantic. Instead of paying Argosy for their fireworks cruise, you can get all the romance (minus the touristy silliness) for the low, low price of $3–free if you happen to be one of those fabulous types with a bus pass.

More evidence that sexy people ride buses

Yesterday I stopped at Victrola, en route to another hospital visit with my mom. While I was in line, two of the baristas–you know the types: Gen Y, artsy, fit, slightly alternative–started talking about the bus. The guy barista called the girl barista his “bus buddy.”

“I always see her on the 43,” he explained to the small group of us waiting for our drinks.

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to join in a conversation about buses and so said something useless about the 43 being the bus to ride on the Hill.

“Yeah,” said the guy behind me. “Everybody’s doing it.”

Phone alone

Over the weekend, I rode the bus with a man who was pretend-talking on the phone. Remember when you were little and you imagined that you had some very important job–like you were the president or something–and you would pick up an imaginary phone and have very important imaginary conversations with your VP and members of your cabinet? Picture that, except with a grown man and a real cell phone.

The man in question was old and very frail, yet he stood in the back near the door, despite the numerous empty seats. Here’s how his “conversation” went:

“I’m going to finish that section on composition.” [pause] “I did comment on that. Yes, that was excellent, and congratulations to you. OK. Uh-huh. We’ll wait and see if he graduates. OK. Alright. Uh-huh. Yes.”

Then, he began again.

And again. And again, using exactly the same words, in exactly the same order, at exactly the same pace, for the entire ride. He was still talking while the driver lowered the lift to let him off.

June Golden Transfer

This month’s Golden Transfer goes to Dave Johnston, a New Jersey native (the Philadelphia side) and longtime Seattleite who is both car-free and (not coincidentally) a fabulously talented writer.

Dave came by his car-free status unintentionally: The suspension on his Volvo station wagon started to fail, and rather than pay the exorbitant repair cost (or risk losing a wheel on the road), he decided to stop driving it. (From Dave: “…having had that wagon for a number of years, I felt that something fantastic was going to happen. And when I say fantastic, I mean an explosion.”) At first, he considered the choice a temporary inconvenience, but after a few not-so-bad months sans voiture, Dave began to, in his own words, “suck the marrow out of the bus.” He donated his car to a public radio station and embraced his life as a full-time bus rider.

Lucky for Dave, he lives on Capitol Hill and works downtown (ideal conditions for car-free living). Still, because he is a writer, he travels all over the region to conduct interviews (not-so-ideal conditions for car-free living). He has taken the bus to almost every neighborhood in the city and to such far-flung locations as Shoreline and Medina. (Who knew they even had buses in Medina?)

Dave is one of the funniest people I know (not that I know many funny people), and I love hearing stories of his bus adventures. Maybe it’s his sense of humor. Maybe it’s a Capitol Hill thing. All I know is, his stories are almost always more interesting than mine. I’m hoping one day he’ll share a few here.

Our hero, preparing to suck the marrow out of the bus

I think he got it all.

More on the costs of car dependence

The Sightline Institute (formerly known as Northwest Environment Watch) recently published its 2006 Cascadia Scorecard.

Here are some excerpts from the Sprawl and Health section:

In subtle yet cumulatively significant ways, extra driving adds to the burden of death, injury and disease. Car accidents, obesity and physical inactivity, exposure to air pollution, and reduced opportunity for neighborly interactions can all result. And all these things take a toll on our health.

…mile for mile, riding a bus is more than ten times safer than driving a car.

…vehicle-related fees–fuel taxes, license and registration fees, and the like–cover only part of the costs of roads, bridges, public parking spaces, and other public expenses of driving. Taxpayers, even those who drive little, pick up the rest of the tab. If drivers had to pay the full costs for owning and operating their automobiles, they would pay more to drive–and, as a consequence, they would be less inclined to choose places to live where destinations are far apart and where driving is a necessity for every trip.

At least he didn’t get on my bus

This evening, I stood next to an actual skinhead at the stop in front of Benaroya Hall. I recently learned that not all skinheads are racist neo-Nazis, but I’m thinking the fact that this one had the letters H-A-T-E tattooed on the fingers of his right hand is an indication that he’s probably not one of the “other” kinds.

Who knows? Maybe his left hand said something nice.

A bus rider’s full moon

I am a very, very big fan of hot weather. So, as you might imagine, I have been thrilled with our recent (and unexpected–it’s June, after all) Seattle-style heat wave. When it’s nice like this, I tend to walk more often–partly because I want to be outside as much as I can, and partly because the buses get a little weird when the temperature climbs above 80. Folks get on half-dressed, exposing parts of their bodies the rest of us were never meant to see. (Depending on the individuals in question, this can sometimes make the bus another kind of hot.) Irritation escalates to anger in the space of seconds. Passengers will stand in the middle of the aisle (blocking traffic and causing more irritation/anger) rather than sit next to another sweaty body–that is, unless the bus driver has turned on the air conditioning full blast, making the bus cold enough to activate my Raynaud’s. And of course, bus-wide discussions are all about the weather (not necessarily weird but certainly less interesting than the usual topics).

What kind of weird/crazy/different stuff do you see on buses when it’s hot outside?

Metro, unplugged

When Metro and Sound Transit’s wi-fi pilot was first announced, I was one happy bus chick. I fantasized about using it all the time–to leave work early (Why work in the office when you can work on your way home from the office?), to IM with girlfriends in different time zones, to check Tracker for the routes I planned to transfer to. In reality, I’ve used it successfully twice: once on the 545 and once on the 48. I was so excited, I didn’t do anything useful–just sent lots of e-mail with the subject line, “I’m on the bus!” Most of the time, I can’t even get it to work. I can get on the network (or so my laptop says), but I can’t get an IP address. (That’s nerdspeak for, “I can’t get on the Internets.”)

Are you using wi-fi on buses? If so, what are you using it for? Have you had any “technical difficulties”?

On a related note: Whether you are using bus wireless or not, what do you think of the concept? I, for one, am a bit worried that I feel the need to check e-mail during my commute. My youngest brother’s girlfriend just got her master’s in psychology. She might call Metro an “enabler.”