A young woman, to a male friend: “I got two new diagnoses, on top of the three I already have: OCD and agoraphobia.”
Male friend: “Really? But you seem so normal.”
Young woman: “That’s the problem; most crazies do.”
27+17=bus-friendly music
Tonight, my friend Coby is performing at Conor Byrne in Ballard. (He’s opening for Ali Marcus, who’s celebrating the release of her most recent CD.) Coby’s show starts at 8, and the first song in his set is going to be about–I’ll give you moment to take a guess–the bus!
And he was already my favorite rock star–OK, except for Prince.
If Seattle got cheaper, the planet might get cooler
Yesterday, BeyondChron had an interesting piece about the connection between climate change and affordable housing. Some excerpts:
Despite the media focusing largely on climate change strategies like ethanol and composting, combating sprawl appears to be one of the efforts offering the most bang for the buck. For starters, cars produce almost a third of the carbon emitted in America. Allowing people to live close to their jobs, grocery stores, parks and schools means dramatically shortened commute times and significantly reduced carbon emissions.
In addition, increasing density means taking advantage of public infrastructure already in place. Rather than extending sewer, water, road and electric [and transit!] systems farther and farther away from the city center, using the already existing systems increases their efficiency and reduces the need for more resources to expand them.
[…]
As demand increases for urban housing, costs go up, often dramatically in many places in recent years. While cities may have won the battle in bringing people in, they’ve also succeeded in forcing people out. Low-income and working-class people in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York keep moving farther and farther away from their jobs, making sprawl worse, not better.
This article is right on time. Growth management must include a strong focus on in-city, affordable housing. Without it, we’ll never create a transit- (or, for that matter, people-) friendly region.
Busing, bumpers, buttons, backpacks, and beliefs
Waiting in line to board my bus home this evening, I stood behind a guy with a backpack covered in buttons. Some examples of the messages:
“Consume less. Share more.”
“Be nice to mice: Don’t test on them.”
“I’m not a lesbian, but I hate men.”
The first two were pretty straightforward. I have no idea what the third was supposed to mean, but it kept my mind occupied until it was my turn to get on. Which led me to this conclusion: Backpack buttons are a bus rider’s equivalent to bumper stickers.
Bumper stickers, you see, serve two primary purposes:
1) To entertain and distract bored drivers who are stuck in traffic.
2) To provide a vehicle (pardon the pun) for car owners to share their beliefs (and biases) with strangers.
Backpack buttons serve similar purposes for transit riders. They entertain and distract bored riders (of which, of course, there are very few) who are stuck waiting at stops, and they allow us to use our “portable bumpers” to declare our positions to anyone who happens to get stuck behind us. As if the bus chick bag didn’t already have enough uses.
While we’re on the subject of bumper stickers…
Heidi from Redmond sent me this a couple of weeks back:
The Concourse of Hypocrisy: A cavalcade of gas-guzzling contemporary automobiles with hypocritical bumper stickers
My favorite example from the site:
Calling folks out like this isn’t usually my flavor (it seems less than constructive), but the point is valid. I know I’ve made note of similarly baffling righteousness a time (or fifty).
Flexcar plans to double its fleet
I missed the big press conference on Friday (dang day job!), but KOMO didn’t. Check out this report.
Facts of note:
• The average shared car removes 15 private cars from the road.
• The average Flexcar user spends $85 per month (I spend significantly less) on car use, while the average private car costs $700 a month.
• Flexcar, which started (and is based) in Seattle, now has a presence in 10 cities, including Portland, San Francisco, and L.A.
Did I mention they have Mini Coopers?
Some updates to those glossary entries
It seems that some “bus friends” are friendlier than others. From Dan in Bellevue*:
Thought I should mention that a “bus buddy” is not the same as a “bus friend” as I found out a couple years ago. I had gotten on a bus on a rainy day riding through south Seattle (the 174 I think) and had on my black bicycle rain pants. A guy who I presumed was mentally challenged got on and sat down in the seat in front of me. He glanced over his shoulder a few times, and eventually asked me if I would be his “bus friend.” Well, there seemed no harm in that so I said OK. So he moved to the seat next to me. I thought we were about to have a conversation, but then I felt a hand on my knee. [After I corrected him, he said] “Sorry,” …but didn’t get up from the seat. … I realized I may have just gotten a taste of what women go through when they get hit on. In any case, I resolved to wear my rain pants less often.
* I removed some of Dan’s dialogue, but I think (I hope) I stayed true to his point.
Also…
In case I didn’t make it clear in my original definition, “trife” is not solely used to describe insane behavior on buses; it has many transit applications. For example, it is often used to describe people who are routinely late for the bus (and the behavior that causes them to be routinely late for the bus). This behavior can be unintentional (the result of oversleeping or underestimating time needs) or intentional (relying on the lateness of buses to plan one’s schedule**). The next time you are late to work for one of these reasons, don’t bother to offer a long explanation. Just say, “I was trife this morning and missed the bus.” Or, if you’d prefer to use the word as a noun: “Trife caused me to miss the bus.”
**One day I dedicate an entire post to this phenomenon.
Maybe Busfather meditates
On my way home tonight, I rode on the bus of a driver who had clearly had enough. One too many times, someone had flashed him an expired transfer, or put the wrong amount of change in the fare box, or just walked on by without paying at all. Tonight, he wasn’t having it. Twice between Union and Cherry, the (not small) driver stood, got in a non-paying passenger’s face, and screamed these exact words:
“DUDE! [pause] “DUDE! GET ON THE NEXT BUS!”
(Note that I was on the 48, a route that doesn’t come for 30+ minutes and then shows up in packs of three, so there was actually a bus directly behind him.)
I have to give him credit for one thing: The folks he screamed at paid their fares. (With good reason. The man was moments from going postal.) And certainly, as a former high school teacher who understands the importance of enforcing rules fairly and does not enjoy being disrespected, I am quite familiar with his frustration.
However…
When your frustration is at such a high level that you routinely engage in outbursts that humiliate transgressors, frighten all of your passengers, and put you at risk of an instant heart attack, and when your method of enforcing rules involves passing the problem on to the unsuspecting driver behind you, it’s probably time to seek another profession.
Boo.
March Golden Transfer
This month’s Golden Transfer goes to Del Rey, musician, storyteller, and general adventurer. Del Rey is a successful blues artist who performs all over the world (she spent the month of January on tour in Australia). She also happens to be a committed bus chick. When she’s in town, Del Rey regularly takes the bus (yes, with all of her instruments) to gigs. Most recently, she rode to consecutive shows in Port Townsend and Friday Harbor. Her itinerary: Seattle to Port Townsend, Port Townsend to Friday Harbor, Friday Harbor to Seattle. Here’s what she had to say about the trip:
We made good time to Port Townsend following Mark Canizaro’s links. I’ll never rent a car to go there again! Under three hours and $10! Definately a cool mini-vacation option. Getting from PT to Anacortes was a little more hassle, (but still 5 hours and under $20). We connected no problem to the keystone ferry, the island Transit #1 to Oak Harbor, then the 411W to Marches Point PnR, then the 410 to the ferry. Coming home we had an hour and a half to kill between the ferry shuttle (the 410 in Anacortes) but there’s lots of nice restaurants in Anacortes, then another hour to kill in Mt Vernon (bus station is a block from the brew pub) waiting for the 90X to Everett, which connects well with the 510 to my neighborhood (Wallingford). As always, even when compared to Mt Vernon, Everett is the hands-down winner for odd-balls on the bus…
Want to know more about the Everett oddballs? Check out one of Del Rey’s shows. She loves to share stories about her chosen form of transportation with her audiences. In the meantime, remember: If a woman with three ukuleles and a guitar can make it from Port Townsend to Anacortes on the bus, the rest of us can probably ride to the next show we attend in town. (Shoot, I’d ride from Port Townsend to Anacortes twice to see Prince perform. Matter of fact, I’d walk 100 miles barefoot–on hot asphalt. But I digress.)
Thanks, Del Rey, for devoting your life to your art (those of us with “day jobs” watch with admiration, envy, and hope), and for remaining true to your values in spite of the unique demands of your profession.
You remind us that anything is possible.
What’s better than free food at a transit fest?
A few weeks ago, my employer sponsored Bus to Work Day at Overlake Transit Center. It was a fun Friday distraction, with representation from transit agencies and commute specialists, free food (including chocolate-chip cupcakes!), and a prize drawing. I entered the drawing and then promptly forgot about it–that is, until Wednesday, when I found out that I’d won a brand new, shiny, red folding bicycle.
One of the (many) reasons I rarely ride a bike is because there is no outdoor bike storage where I live. (The hand-me-down mountain bike that Bus Nerd hooked me up with is currently languishing in his office, awaiting a dusting off in time for Bike to Work Day. But I digress.) A folding bike is a perfect solution because I can store it inside–in a closet, or even under the bed.
The bike I won is a Dahon. I don’t know much about bike manufacturers, but so far, I like what I’ve seen on the company’s website:
Dahon was founded with the singular purpose of convincing more people to use environmentally-sustainable forms of transport. To accomplish this goal, we’ve focused on creating innovative but reasonably-priced folding bicycles.
[…]
Dahon is committed to creating green mobility solutions for people who live active, environmentally friendly lifestyles.
I also love the design. It’s compact and fairly simple to open and close.
My new bike, open and ready to ride
Less than a minute later: my new bike, folded and ready to store
Of course, I don’t know how it rides yet, having only tried for a couple of minutes in front of my office on Thursday afternoon, and I’m not sure how well it will work for multi-modal scenarios. When I tried to take it home from work (in its folded state) on Thursday, the 545 driver told me I couldn’t bring it on the bus. I didn’t have time to unfold it, and I wasn’t convinced that, given its small wheels, it would fit on the regular bike rack. Lord knows I wasn’t trying to experiment on a bus full of impatient commuters. He finally allowed me to store it under one of the lifting seats in the front. At Montlake, I was nervous getting on the 48, but that driver let me on without a word.
I’ve seen folded bikes on the bus before, but I don’t know what the official rule is, or even if there is one. Until I know for sure (or at least until I’ve had a chance to see if mine will fit on regular bike rack), I’ll keep it in the coat closet and use it for the trips I’ve been wanting a bike for: regular errands that are too far to walk in a reasonable amount of time but are inconvenient by bus. Oh yeah–and trips to Cupcake Royale.