A chip off the *old* block (or, Karma)

Back when I was a young BCiT, I made my grandma mad by (unintentionally) announcing her age to a full 55. At six, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t want people to know how old she was. Even now, I find all the shame and secrecy surrounding the number of years a person has been on the planet to be somewhat difficult to understand.

Folks, I’m no spring chicken. Unlike my father, I can’t claim to predate I-5*, but I am old enough to have a (somewhat fuzzy) memory of the Sonics only national championship. (Sorry, didn’t mean to start down that path again.) I’ve tended to view my advancing age as a good thing, since—for one thing—it’s advancing. (I’ll take being alive plus one over the alternative any day.) It also means I’ve lived enough years to have learned a thing or two—and that I’m inching ever closer to that Metro senior discount. I digress.

Last Friday, on an afternoon 3 ride home from visiting some friends on Queen Anne, little Chicklet passed the time (and entertained her neighbors) by making up a song about us.

The lyrics went something like this: “Mommy’s 38, 38, 38; Mommy’s 38—and Rosa’s 3!”

Eh. Hmmm.

Sorry, Grandma.

***

*I do, however, hope to outlive it.

Gen Y and PT

From MSNBC, via my neighbor, Casey (and Bus Nerd):

Meet Natalie McVeigh, the auto industry’s latest headache.

At 25 years old, McVeigh lives in Denver and has two good jobs, as a research analyst and an adjunct professor of philosophy. What she doesn’t have — or want — is a car.

A confluence of events — environmental worries, a preference for gadgets over wheels and the yearslong economic doldrums — is pushing some teens and twentysomethings to opt out of what has traditionally been considered an American rite of passage: Owning a car.

Read the rest…

Guess that mad man wasn’t so mad after all.

A bus contest!

Think you ride America’s best bus route? Submit a photo and brief description to this contest (sponsored by Good Magazine and NYC’s Transportation Alternatives), and you could win a fabulous prize package!

What is it about your bus route that you love? Is your bus driver brilliant? Is the view from your window breathtaking? Do your fellow riders characters belong in a Hemingway novel?

the OBJECTIVE
Show and tell us why your bus route is the best in America.

the ASSIGNMENT
Take a photo with your camera phone (no fancy cameras please) and send it to us with a 140 character or less caption by Wednesday, November 10.

the REQUIREMENTS
Photos should be taken with camera phones and each caption should include the location and route. Please include your name and the best way to reach you.

Email your entry to: busroutes@goodinc.com
Tweet your entry to: @GOOD and use the hashtag #bestbusride
[More details here]

I would totally enter my Smooth Jazz ride, except that I’m one of the judges. (I think I’ve died and gone to bus chick heaven.) Get those entries in, folks!

My girl: ready to roll, as always

Happy birthday, Chicklet!

Sweet Chicklet turns three today. In honor: my first Grist column is all about busing with babies–er, I mean big kids.

An excerpt:

Since our daughter, Rosa was born, three years ago today, we’ve been Metro parents. Rosa took her first bus trip home from the hospital at one day old and has ridden almost daily ever since. What I’ve learned is that there are significant challenges to parenting without a car. This is not because there’s anything inherently unhealthy or inconvenient about taking kids on public transit, but because most U.S. cities, including mine, were built (or rebuilt) to accommodate cars. I’ve also learned that opting to continue our bus-based life was an excellent choice for our children’s health and well-being. Here’s why. Read the rest…

You know you’re a bus chick if… (part III)

A bus chickYour almost-three-year old daughter, while playing with some pig figurines that her grandma gave her, picks up the “mommy” pig and says, “She has to leave; she’s going to a meeting.”

And when you ask her what kind of meeting the mommy pig is going to, she says, “A transit task force.”

You know you’re a bus chick if…
You know you’re a bus chick if… (part II)

On traveling and time

One of the most common objections to getting around without a car (and specifically, to riding the bus) is that it simply takes too much time. Though this certainly isn’t always true (many commutes are faster with PT) I do concede that some–OK, a lot of–trips take longer by bus.*

And yet, I would argue that, compared to the average car-owning parent/professional, I come out ahead in the time department. How is this possible, you ask? Because the amount of time it takes to travel by car isn’t just about how quickly you can get from point A to point B.

Consider that I never have to:

• Shop for a car or insurance
• Search for parking
• Stop for gas
• Get my oil changed
• Buy new tires
• Replace brakes/clutch/transmission/alternator/battery
• Schlep to a dealer for scheduled maintenance
• Wait for a tow truck
• Wait in line for emissions testing/inspections
• Wash, vacuum, detail or otherwise shine up
• Get a ding or scratch fixed
• Deal with insurance drama after an accident
• And et cetera

Consider also that the time I spend traveling is not wasted time. I use it to:

• Read
• Spend QT with my kids (with reading, games, and face-to-face talking)
• Exercise (can’t remember the last time I saw the inside of a gym)**
• Catch up on e-mail
• Listen to messages (OK, yes, sometimes I talk on the phone. Quietly. About appropriate subjects. Hey, at least it’s legal.)
• Prepare for meetings
• Rest
• Look out the window and enjoy my city
• Eavesdrop!

But here’s the really important part:

Given that our family saves well over ten thousand dollars per year in transportation costs, the additional money we invest will take years off our working lives.

Now that’s a time tradeoff I’m willing to make.

*Of course, this would be true much less often if buses had dedicated right-of-way, but that’s a post for another time.
**In addition to all the walking I do to and from bus stops, for most trips of a mile or less, I usually choose to walk the entire distance. It doesn’t take much longer than driving, if you factor in loading up and strapping in + searching for parking. Plus (as I mentioned), I never have to set aside time to exercise.

October inspiration

It’s been a slow month (and a half) for blogging. The move, which I intend to write about at some point, (mostly from a “selecting a home for a car-free family” perspective) and which is still in progress (at least, the getting settled part) took a lot out of me. That, plus a couple of consuming projects, extreme technical difficulties, and seemingly endless weekend events had me shifting most of my alt-transpo energies to Twitter.

For the time being, I have returned to writing full sentences, and I’d like to use them to tell you about:

A mad, mad man

The New York Times recently published a piece about Vincent Kartheiser, aka Pete Campbell from Mad Men. Apparently, Mr. Kartheiser, who lives in Los Angeles, has been car-free for three years. Unlike a lot of high-profile non-drivers, Vincent prefers to get around on PT.

“It’s wonderful,” he said. “Instead of driving and being stressed out about traffic, you can work your scene, you can do your exercises or whatever on the bus. Everyone’s got their own deal.”

[…]

“I like that my life slows down when I go places,” he said. “I have all these interactions with the human race and I can watch people living their life and not just in their car.”

And the best quote of the article?

“They’ve done a study and they’ve found that people under 30 no longer view cars as status symbols or even positive things,” Mr. Kartheiser said. “They look at them as pollutants.”

Talk about progress!

A diet I can actually get behind

On September 15th, Zipcar kicked off its second annual Low Car Diet. Participants in 12 cities have agreed not to use their cars for one month (through October 15th) in exchange for transit passes, Zipcar driving credit, miscellaneous SWAG, and a chance to think differently about how they get around.

I had the pleasure of meeting the Seattle participants at the kickoff, and I’ve been keeping up with their progress (speaking of Twitter) ever since. So far, I’m impressed by the creativity and enthusiasm they’ve brought to the month-long challenge. Here’s hoping that they follow in the footsteps of 61% of last year’s dieters and decide to make a permanent switch.

Citizen activism in Queens

Streetfilms has a cool new film about the Jackson Heights neighborhood, which has succeeded in reclaiming some of its public space.

It’s just another reminder that individuals, when they channel their energy into action, can make a difference.