1. Free money!
And, no, I’m not talking about the thousands of dollars you’ll save on transportation. Check it:
SPOKANE, Wash. — A mysterious woman hopped aboard buses, greeted passengers with “Merry Christmas” and handed each an envelope containing a card and a $50 bill before stepping off and repeating the process on another bus.
Thanks Chris (and everyone) for sending the story.
2. Unexpected winter views of Tahoma
Drivers have to watch the road; riders get to watch the mountain.
Since early November, I’ve devoted my Real Change column to a series of how-to articles for people who want to give up their cars. So far, I’ve written five, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. After all, there’s a lot to say; Chris Balish wrote an entire book on the subject.
Yesterday, I found wikiHow, a wiki site with a how-to focus. Lo and behold–they have useful and informative one-pager about going car free: “How to Live without a Car.” Here’s a taste:
Living without a car can be pretty tough, especially in the U.S., where public transportation is frequently lacking and where questionable urban planning has caused the average person to live far away from workplaces, schools, and markets. That said, it’s certainly possible, as long as you’re willing to change your lifestyle. Some of the suggestions below are easy for anybody, while others require more sacrifice. The sacrifice, however, may benefit you immensely once you consider the staggering cost of owning a vehicle …
The rest of the article is a list of basic steps you should take and tools you will need to find success living without a car. It ain’t perfect (I don’t, for example, agree that you need “a friend [who is] willing to drive you around”), but it’s a doggone good start.
More fun articles on wikiHow:
How to Ride a Public Transportation Bus
How to Remain Standing While Riding a Bus
How to Ride the Bus Safely and Enjoy Yourself
The quality of articles can hardly compete with those on Wikipedia, mostly because this site doesn’t have nearly the number of eyeballs on it. Still, it’s cool that folks are putting this information out there. Perhaps you experienced riders might want to share some of your expertise. When I get a moment, I’m going to.
A man and a woman who apparently know each other meet in the aisle on the way to their seats.
Woman: “Hey, stranger! You make it through OK?”
Man: “I just got back in town. I couldn’t take it.”
Woman: “Well, you better turn right back around. We’re about to get another d*mn storm. And I just got my lights back on!”
As they continue to talk windstorms and lost power, the man in front of me sits on a tube of toothpaste. He tries to clean it, then gives up and moves.
Later, at Jefferson and 14th, a very drunk (the kind of drunk you can smell coming) man gets on, muttering to himself in a thick accent.
“I’m going to a celebration of my people, in Africa, where it doesn’t rain. Not like here. Here it rains every f-ing day.”
Through all of this, Smooth Jazz is at the wheel. Smooth Jazz makes everything aaalllll riiiight.
(Thanks to Peter Folger, bus nerd extraordinaire, for these links.)
Despite their high costs (approximately 60% more than diesel models), hybrid buses are becoming a popular choice for North American transit agencies:
DaimlerChrysler, whose Orion brand has close to a 60 per cent market share, estimates that, based on existing orders, the number of hybrid buses on US and Canadian streets will grow by three-quarters over the next year from 1,200 to 2,100.
“They’re selling very well,” says Brian Macleod, senior vice-president at Gillig, a Californian bus manufacturer.
Since Gillig began commercial production of hybrid buses in 2005, these models have grown to a fifth of its output. By contrast, hybrids make up less than 1.5 per cent of US car and light-truck sales.
According to the article, hybrids are ideal for the kind of stop-and-go driving that buses do, since braking charges the battery.
Speaking of hybrids…
A Japanese rail manufacturer is working on a bus/train combo vehicle:
JR Hokkaido, a Japanese rail firm, is poised to fully launch its dual-mode bus and rail vehicle. The bus-train has both rubber and steel tires, allowing it to switch between regular roads and railroad tracks with ease.
Apparently, the operating costs for these cars are significantly lower than for other types of rail cars. The intention is to use them for lines that have low daily ridership.
Erica Barnett’s been checking out the new rail line in Denver:
Here, in a city pretty much no one would regard as cutting-edge (the girls are still wearing tube-tops; the guys still favor large wire-framed Dick Cheney glasses), light rail has managed to take thousands of cars off the road. Surveys found that nearly 50% of light rail riders switched to transit from cars, and that more than 25% of commuters to the city center get there by transit. Light rail ridership here has been 60 percent higher than projections.
Thanks to Andrew from Sound Transit for sending the link.
Unfortunately, there won’t be any coming-out parties east of the mountains in the near future.
Light rail plans ran off-track Thursday evening when the Spokane Transit Authority disbanded the group charged with planning rapid transit between Liberty Lake and downtown Spokane.”
STA Board members unanimously voted to set aside the project, although they commended the Light Rail Steering Committee for its work.
Apparently, the board set aside $5 million for right-of-way purchase. I’m choosing to remain optimistic.
Our favorite rail car had its official unveiling today. Due to a series of bus mishaps–starting with an early arrival of the 27 (and a not-early-enough arrival of Bus Chick), and ending with a serious underestimation of the distance between the 23 stop at 4th S. & S. Lander and the Link Operations and Maintenance Base on Airport Way–I was 30 minutes late. This turned out to be a good thing, since I missed all the self-congratulatory speeches (all but one, which turned out to be worth listening to–more later) and got there just in time for the good stuff.
Behold:
Gotta love my excellent photography. I should have made a video like my boy Ben Schiendelman. I’ll link to it as soon as he posts it.
On my first visit with Car #2, I peered longingly in the window. This time, I got to go inside. (OK, everyone did. But still.)
That’s Warren from MEHVA on the far right.
Here’s the map of the stops:
Each stop is represented by a different icon.
Now about that speech…
The one I heard was Greg Nickels’. He said (and I’m paraphrasing here–my hands were far too cold to write) that we can no longer continue to build cities to accommodate cars and instead must focus on clean, efficient mass transit systems. Our investment in rail, he said, is not just about moving people from one place to another. It’s about creating a livable city and preserving the world for our (well, your) children and grandchildren.
Uh huh.
Mayor Nickels said he’s been asking Santa for light rail for many years. Now that his wish has been granted, maybe my Christmas wish has a shot.
See you on the train!
After Friday’s storm, I’ve had enough excitement for the season. For those still looking for a thrill: I provided some suggestions for getting to the higher elevations without a car in this week’s Real Change column. (Thanks to Laura from Bellevue for the tips.) Winter sports aren’t really my “thing” (plus, I have word count limits), so please let me know if I missed any good options.
A Bus to the Pass
I have to admit it: I’m not much of a winter sports fan. My first clue that snow-related activities weren’t for me was in 7th grade, when, less than an hour into my first skiing lesson (bundled from head to foot but still teary-eyed from the cold), I asked the instructor if I could head into the lodge for the remainder of the afternoon. A few years ago, I tried snowboarding. It was fun and all, but after every fall, I thanked the man upstairs that I didn’t break, tear, sprain, strain, or hyperextend something. And the thing is: I need my legs to get around.
Many of my fellow Seattleites, on the other hand, take their winter sports seriously. For those who actually like performing death-defying acts in ungodly temperatures: If you’ve decided car-free living isn’t for you because you can’t imagine giving up your weekends on the slopes, it might be time to reconsider. After all, you can take the bus to the Pass!
One of the coolest options is Snowbus (www.snowbus.com), which heads to Snoqualmie Pass every Thursday night during the season. It leaves Seattle (from Pyramid Alehouse) at 5:30 p.m., stops again in Bellevue at around 6, and arrives at the pass by 7. For $49, you get a lift ticket, a sandwich and beer courtesy of Pyramid, and a round-trip ride on a luxury bus (with a bathroom). If you don’t need a lift ticket, you can ride the bus only for $25. Snowbus is reputed to be as much a social event as a form of transportation, but you must be 21 or older to ride. (Hey, they can’t be handing out pints of beer to teenagers.)
Beeline Tours (www.beelinetours.com) offers daily trips to Snoqualmie. It leaves the 65th Street Park & Ride at 7:00 a.m. and makes two stops — Colman Dock and the South Bellevue Park & Ride — on the way to the Pass. The ride costs $35. On weekends, you can buy a ride/lift ticket combo for $75. Beeline offers the advantage of daylong trips, and children are welcome.
For those who’d rather head farther afield for their winter adventures, Crystal Mountain (www.crystalmt.com) operates weekend shuttles to the Pass from Seattle and Tacoma. Cost for adults is $70 with a lift ticket and $35 without.
If you’re not into tour buses, Rideshare Online (www.rideshareonline.com) has a special section for folks looking to carpool to the slopes. For the cost of a few gallons of gas, you can probably find a ride to any pass in the region.
Of course, if you don’t know how to ski or snowboard yet, you can always sign up for lessons with a ski school like Fiorini (www.fiorinisports.com) and travel to the Pass in style: on a yellow school bus.
I saw this ad on the 545 during last night’s insane ride home:
In case you don’t have superhuman vision, here’s what it says:
Your fantastic new job gives you such joy you start walking to work every day and before you can say tiddlywinks you’ve started a car-free revolution and the toxin levels in Puget Sound plummet and the orcas are taken off the endangered species list because the salmon make a miraculous comeback and with the abundance of lean protein our offensive line bulks up 23 lbs per player the Seahawks win the Super Bowl and Seattle is given 3 billion dollars by an anonymous donor and while building an agreeable mass transit system secret documents are unearthed and we discover who killed JFK the Roswell aliens really landed in Fremont and the meaning of all life right here in the Northwest.
Too bad I’m not looking for a job.
1) If you’re leaving work in the middle of a rainstorm, and the wind is blowing the rain right under your umbrella (assuming you can even keep your umbrella open), and you have a 10-minute walk to the bus stop, and you’ve already ruined one cell phone by walking to and from bus stops in the rain, you can protect your current cell phone (et cetera) by putting your bag on under your waterproof jacket.
(Note: To some bus riders, the above discovery might appear elementary. To this one, it was revolutionary.)
2) If you’re riding on an articulated bus in the middle of a rainstorm, and that articulated bus is rerouted to avoid a fallen tree at 23rd and Republican, and the reroute involves sharp turns and narrow streets, and you happen to be sitting in the middle section, inside that accordion thingy that you liked when you were a kid even though it made you car–well, “bus”–sick, and that accordion thingy is full of water and bending in ways nature never intended, you will get wet. So, unfortunately, will that cell phone you worked so hard to preserve.
I can take any one of three buses home from downtown–in order of preference, the 27, the 4, or the 14. The 27 is hands down my favorite of the three because it’s fast and takes me directly to my house. If the 27 isn’t coming anytime soon, I fall back on the 4, which, though significantly slower and less pleasant than the 27, also takes me directly to my house. The 14 is slow and requires a walk, so I take it only when neither of the other two buses is coming soon.
Tonight, I found myself at the Benaroya Hall stop on 3rd Avenue sometime between 7:35 and 7:45. The 27 was scheduled to be there at 7:55, the 4 at 8:00, and the 14 at 8:07. By 8:00, the 27 had not yet arrived. At 8:02 (with still no sign of the 27), the 4 came, and with it, my dilemma: Should I continue to wait for my preferred bus, with no way of anticipating how much longer it would be, or should I take the less desirable–but guaranteed–ride?
Several times a week, I am faced with a choice like this, and my decision is usually made by weighing a complex set of factors (weather, time of day, mood, consequences of lateness). An example: If it’s late at night and one of the choices involves a walk, I’ll probably opt for the choice that doesn’t, even if the wait is longer or the bus is slower.
Tonight, I opted for the 4, because of my desire for immediate warmth and my recent experience with extremely late buses. I arrived home to find Bus Nerd, who, it turns out, had also just come from downtown (he’d been waiting at a different stop on 3rd). He had been faced with the same dilemma but had chosen to wait for the 27, which, it turns out, arrived five minutes after the 4. I was warm for the five minutes he was still waiting, but despite my head start, he beat me home.
Fellow riders: What do you do in cases like this? Do you settle for the “bus in the hand” or hold out for a better ride?
