Busing with baby, part II

Remember June, the bus chick in training I wrote about back in November of ’06? (I’m guessing not, which is why I provided the link.) Her mother Lily, a full-fledged bus chick, recently wrote an article about busing with children for NWSource. Lily has been riding around town with June since June was three weeks old, and she has some great suggestions for how to plan, what to carry, and how to travel safely. (A fun fact I didn’t know: Traveling to school on the bus is 12 times safer than traveling by car.)

Here are some of Lily’s safety tips:

Picture
Lily and June waiting for the bus in West Seattle (Source: NWSource)

• Stay seated. Children are often tempted to crawl on the seats of the bus, and older kids have been known to stand and “surf” while the bus is moving. Remind kids to stay in their seats. According to transit safety officer Sue Stewart, forward-facing seats are generally the safest*.
• Communicate with the driver. If you know you will need extra time to get situated before the bus starts moving, politely ask the driver to wait until you are seated.
• When traveling with infants, it can be easiest to carry them in a sling or front-pack carrier. While you can bring an infant in a car-seat carrier, there is no place to secure it, and it can be unwieldy. However, it is still a great option if you are going to be driving on either end of your bus trip.

Lily also advises would-be bus parents to travel light. After just 11 weeks of bus parenting, I know this to be good advice. From last week’s Real Change column.

As a bus chick, I deal with the competing requirements of being prepared for any eventuality and traveling light. Pre-Chicklet, I had reached a good balance, keeping my bus chick bag light but stocked with everything a childless young(ish) woman might need on her adventures. These days, my bus chick bag must double as a diaper bag, and I’ve got an additional 10-pound piece of precious cargo to consider. A baby carrier keeps my hands free and the Chicklet happy (it also prevents the hassle of taking a stroller on the bus), but I’m still figuring out how much (and what) to carry with me.

I’ve gotten pretty good at packing the stuff Chicklet will need, but that often means leaving behind some of my own necessities–like reading material. I’ll work it out (and continue to pick Lily’s brain) until I get it right and then report back. In the meantime, as long as we have diapers, her snow suit, and a bus pass, we’ll make out alright.

* Over the summer, I received a question from a reader about the safest seat for traveling with an infant. The folks I contacted at Metro didn’t know of an official position on this, but after a bit of deliberation, they concluded that the seat behind the driver was the safest. It seems to me that they should get together with safety officer Sue and come up with a consistent list of recommendations, then make it available to riders on the Web site and at pass sales offices.

Upcoming events for transit types

Thursday, January 24th

Metro is hosting a class to help employers lower employee commuting costs.

The law allows employees to set aside up to $115 per month in pre-tax income for purchase of a transit pass or ticket book. Because pre-tax benefits lower an employee’s taxable income, the employee saves federal withholding and FICA payroll taxes on the amount deducted. The employer also saves paying FICA on the amount deducted. Employers can also choose to contribute to the cost of their employees’ public transportation fare and still allow employees to use pre-tax dollars for the employee share.

Metro staff offers free training classes for employers – the next one is Jan. 24 in Seattle – tool kits to start the program at individual worksites, and assistance in carrying out the program.

If you don’t work for a company cool enough to buy your bus pass, you should encourage your boss (or HR rep) to go.

Details:

Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Mezza Cafe Conference Room, Third Floor, Starbucks Center, 2401 Utah Ave. S.

Register here.

Tuesday, January 29th

The Transportation Choices Coalition is hosting Transportation Advocacy Day.

We’re heading down to Olympia on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 to advocate for action on climate change, better transportation choices, and healthier transportation. Last year more than 150 citizens like you advocated for better transportation alternatives. At Advocacy Day you’ll have the chance to learn more about transportation issues, meet with legislators, attend hearings, and be a professional lobbyist for a day!

Last year this event was extremely successful. If you can make the time, it’s worth it to attend–if only to be part of the bike/Flexcar caravan.

Details:

Times: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Meet at: The United Churches of Olympia, 110 11th Avenue SE, Olympia

Register here.

Friday, February 1st

As part of their First Friday Earth Forum series, the Rainier Valley Unitarian Universalists will show the documentary Bus Riders Union .

This film by Academy Award winner Haskell Wexler traces three years in the life of Los Angeles’ Bus Riders Union as it forges a powerful multiracial movement to fight transit racism, clean up LA’s lethal auto pollution, and win billion-dollar victories for real mass transit for the masses.

Does the Seattle area need its own union to fight for more transit to better serve both the needy and the environment? Come and be part of this conversation.

I’ve been wanting to see this film, so I’ll be there.

Details:

Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Rainier Unitarian Universalist Center, 835 Yesler Way (Yesler and Broadway)

Catching up

The end of 2007 was a bit slow for blogging, as I was distracted by my new Chicklet, the holidays, and etc. I intend to get things back on track for 2008. For starters, here are some photos (taken by Bus Nerd) I meant to post over the last few weeks:

Moving furniture on the 27:

Moving a chair on the 27

And I thought I deserved props for taking a large painting to the framer’s on the 8.

The remains of a hurried bus-stop breakfast:

Bus stop breakfast
Bus stop breakfast

Bus Nerd has been known to do this, though he tends not to leave his Tupperware behind.

A notice posted at the stop in front of Benaroya Hall:

Bike rack warning

Starting Saturday, January 5th, bike racks will not be available on some Metro Transit routes and trips. Some bike racks are being removed due to rack operating concerns. Racks will be replaces in the coming weeks as they become available.

This change affects all bus trips on routes 1, 2, 3, 4,10, 12, 13, 14, 36, 49, and 70 and some trips on routes 7, 43, and 44.

For more information, visit www.kingcounty.gov/metro.

Looks like the three-bike racks aren’t working out as well as planned.

And speaking of the Benaroya stop: Check the new solar-powered trash compactor that has replaced the standard nasty, overflowing can:

Solar trash compactor

Nice.

And finally: a crowded stop near the stadium after the Seattle-Washington playoff game–back when times were still good for Seahawk fans:

Bye, Seahawks

Perhaps if folks had ridden the bus to Lambeau on Saturday…

Until next year, gentlemen.

The ultimate bus foul, part III (or, another good reason to ride)

Folks in New York rode the subway without pants yesterday:

About 900 New Yorkers shed their bottoms – but not their underwear – and took to the 2, 6 and R trains for the seventh annual No Pants Subway Ride.

“This is what I’d be doing anyway on a Saturday – sitting at home with my pants off,” proclaimed Matt Gernt, 22, a finance consultant from Harlem, before boarding an R train.

No pants on the subway (Source: New York Daily News)

 

I can’t say I’m interested in seeing that much of my fellow riders (Seattle bus types: Don’t get any ideas.), but I imagine that for some New Yorkers (my brother, Jeremy, for example), it all depends on who’s on the train.

Busing with baby, part I

This morning, Chicklet and I hopped the 48 to the KUOW studios so I could chat with Jeannie Yandel, host of Sound Focus, about life on the bus with a baby. (After the interview, I learned that Ms. Yandel, who hails from Chicago, is also a bus chick.) If you’re interested in knowing how my first five weeks of bus motherhood have gone, you can tune in to Sound Focus tomorrow (Tuesday) at 2:00 PM. I’ll be posting a more extensive version here sometime around the New Year.

Update: For those who are interested, here’s a direct link to the interview.

PlayPlay

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

‘Tis the season: car-free shopping, revisited

One of my favorite readers, Chris from Port Townsend, recently wrote to request a post about shopping on the bus. Fortunately, I’ve already written one. (Actually, it was originally a Real Change column, but I posted it here, too.)

For those who missed it last year, some tips on car-free shopping:

Ah, the holiday season: the time of year when we gather with family, give thanks for our blessings, and spend as much money as humanly possible. What better time to review my bus-chick-tested shopping tips?

Tip 1: Buy less. The simplest and most effective way to avoid the hassle of shopping without a car is to stop shopping so doggone much. Your decision to try life as a bus chick means you’re probably interested in conserving — your money, the world’s resources, or both — and spending less time at the mall will surely help you accomplish this.

Tip 2: Use a different kind of highway. If you don’t need a particular item immediately, consider ordering it online. If it’s a gift that has to be shipped, you save two trips: the first, to the store to buy the gift, and the second to the post office to mail it. In cases where you want to see an item before you buy it (or you don’t want to pay shipping costs), you can still use the Internet to research products and prices. That way, when you’re ready to buy, you’ll only have to make one stop.

Tip 3: Concentrate! The bus-based life is not well-suited to the “running around” that has become the norm in our consumer-oriented, car-centric culture. (And who says that’s a bad thing?) Shop in places that have a wide variety of stores concentrated in a small area, so you can take care of several purchases each time you make a trip. I tend to shop downtown, mostly because it’s the concentrated shopping area that is most easily accessible to me. And speaking of downtown…

Tip 4: Shop on your way. The next time you’re in the center of our fair city waiting for a transfer, try using that time to take care of business. When I’m downtown and in need of a particular item, I decide how much time I’ll need, check the schedule of the bus I’m waiting to catch, and then head to the nearest store that has what I need. If I’m not in the market for anything in particular but the wait between buses is especially long, I’ll use the down time “pre-shop” for stuff (greeting cards, vacuum-cleaner bags, printer cartridges — whatever I’m closest to) that I know I’ll need in the future.

Tip 5: Be Flexible. Most of the items people regularly shop for can be easily reached and carried home on the bus. (Note: If it’s big enough to take up a seat of its own, consider traveling during off-peak times.) For those times when you want to purchase an item that is outside the bus’s coverage area or that exceeds your carrying capacity (and the limits of your fellow riders’ patience), rent a Flexcar. For all you Craig’s Listers and garage salers: They even have pickups.

In this particular column, I was constrained by word count limits–and the fact that I happen to loathe shopping. Bus-riding shopaholics: Feel free to add your own tips here.

An evening of firsts (and one second)

Last night, on the way to her first Transportation Choices Coalition meeting, Chicklet took her first ride on the 27. The ride was definitely more thrilling for mother (whose favorite bus happens to be the 27) than it was for daughter, who slept through the ride. During her nap, Chicklet missed the chance to witness her first bus mack, one of the relatively rare driver-on-passenger variety.

At the meeting, my little chicklet received her second award in a week (the first being the November Golden Transfer): a lifetime membership in TCC. Check it:

Rosa became a TCC member at not quite five weeks old

She was less than grateful, fussing for most of the meeting and generally leaving a bad impression on the other transit types who attended. At least she was quiet on the 27 ride home.

And while you’re providing feedback…

The King County Transit Advisory Committee, of which I am a member, has started working with Metro’s IT staff to find ways to improve the agency’s Web site. In addition to providing our own suggestions for improvements, we’re collecting additional suggestions from the folks we know. So…

Got ideas about how to make Metro’s Web presence more useful to customers? Post them here.

To start the process, the TAC will receive a presentation from a Metro staff member to learn more about how the IT group at Metro works. TAC meetings are open to the public, so if you’re interested attending (note that you won’t be able to provide suggestions for specific improvements during the meeting), here’s the info:

Tuesday, December 11th, 6pm
King Street Center, 8th Floor Conference Center, 201 S Jackson Street

UPDATE: The presentation about the Web site is scheduled to start at 7:20 PM.