More reasons to ride (from a bus chick sympathizer)

Why busing beats driving, according to my Gail:

1) You don’t have to wait for a light to put on your makeup!
2) You don’t get accused of causing accidents just because your cell phone rings or you have to kill a bee!
3) If someone scratches the bus you don’t have to lose a day’s work getting quotes! Likewise,
4) If your fellow passenger throws up – no one has to fight over who’s going to clean it up!
5) On rainy days you don’t have to carry extra mats for the floor!
6) You don’t burn your be-hind on the seats on hot summer days.
7) You never hear of small children being left on a running bus for ‘just a second’ when Mom jumps off at a 7-eleven for a Slurpy.

Happy visitor, angry brother

Last night, I met my brother Jeremy (aka Saulty) at The Apartment after work. On my walk from the bus stop, a man stopped me and asked, in very broken English, how to get to the airport. I don’t know if the man had highly sensitive buschick-dar or is just very lucky, but either way, he came to the right place.

I walked him to the 194 stop on 2nd & Pike and in the process learned:
• He is from Turkey.
• He spent the summer working in a cannery in Alaska.
• He wanted to see Seattle before he returned home.
• Seattle is a beautiful and fabulous city (wait–I already knew that), despite the expensive lodging. (According to my new friend, even the hostels downtown are too high.)

I also learned that my brother does not like to be kept waiting on a chilly street in Belltown on Friday night. Wait, I already knew that, too.

Bus Chick and Saulty
Bus Chick and Saulty last month, on a day Bus Chick was on time

Car-free living goes mainstream

Despite the large number of fabulous, active, interesting people who choose to be car-free, it is still considered an “alternative” lifestyle. We bus- and bike-dependent types are viewed as outside the mainstream: martyrs; angry, political types with something to prove; or die-hard environmentalists participating in “sustainability experiments.” Here’s the thing, though: Some people choose not to own cars out of good, old-fashioned, American self-interest.

I wrote an essay on the personal-benefit aspects of car-free living for this month’s issue of Seattle magazine. And then, a couple of weeks ago, I found an entire book on the subject. Chris Balish’s, How to Live Well without Owning a Car (Ten Speed Press, 2006) shows people how to improve their lives–especially their finances–by (don’t make me say “I told you so”) giving up their cars. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:

Without a car to constantly take care of, you’ll have fewer hassles, lower stress, less aggravation, and less to worry about. You may even find you have more free time. With no car in your life you may also improve your health, get more exercise, lose weight, and sleep better. In other words, you’ll be happier, healthier, and much wealthier. Best of all, practically anyone can live happily without owning a car–or, as many people call it, living “car-free.” This program is not abstract theory. It’s not a fringe concept applicable to a select few. It’s a broad-based, step-by-step process that almost anyone in mainstream America can follow to start saving money right away. Even if you’re convinced you “need” a car, this program may change your mind.

How to Live Well… has received a fair amount of media attention, and not just because of the novelty factor. Though it’s a bit repetitive in parts, the book extremely persuasive–so persuasive that I predict it will convince lots of people to dump that extra ton (or two) they’ve been lugging around. Here are some reasons why:

• It is written by an attractive, successful, image-conscious, Midwesterner who accidentally discovered a better way to live–just the right person to convince the skeptical that car-free living isn’t only for granola-eating, hemp-wearing, co-op shopping, Berkeley students.
• It provides many alternatives to driving cars, including walking, public transit, bicycles, and scooters.
• Though it focuses on the financial benefits of not owning a car, it doesn’t leave out any of the others: environmental, social, physical, emotional.
• It explains the detrimental effects of our car-centric culture without demonizing cars or judging the people who drive them.
• It gives useful, specific information about how to prepare for, and eventually live, a car-free life.
• It includes a chapter about car-free dating–critical for all the sexy people who are considering taking the plunge.
• It promotes car-sharing for situations that require a car.
• It offers strategies for reducing car use for those who can’t give up their cars completely.
• It is full of inspiring testimonials from people all over the country who are happily living car-free (and “car-lite”) lives.

Buy How to Live Well without a Car for every prospective bus chick you know. Buy it for all your broke friends who are two value meals away from selling their plasma. Buy it for your upstairs neighbor, your Aunt Mae, and your cousin Junior. Buy it for your fraternity brothers. Buy it for your dentist.

Better yet, make all those folks check it out at the library. It is, after all, a book about saving money.

6:40 PM, westbound 545

A cell phone conversation:

“You owe child support? How much you pay?” [pause] “900 a month? For one kid?” [pause] “Damn. That makes me feel a little better. I only pay 600.”

Moving toward multi-modal

Recently, I’ve started to consider expanding my transportation options. No disrespect to the bus, which has served me well for many years and will remain my primary mode of transportation, but there are times when I want more control over when and how quickly I get somewhere. To that end, on Monday, I took a beginning commuter class through Cascade Bicycle Club’s Education Foundation. (Well, it wasn’t an official class; I spent a couple of hours getting schooled by their extremely knowledgeable commuting specialist, Chris Cameron.)

Busnerd biking
Busnerd, on Bike to Work Day, 2006

Despite the number of bike nerds I know, I’ve never really considered biking a viable option for regular travel, 1) because of practical considerations like how to dress, weather, and hours of daylight, and 2) because I am terrified to ride in the street. (I’ve participated in Bike to Work Day a few times, but for that, I used bike paths, trails and sidewalks. Plus, there was the added incentive of free food at the end of the line.)

Chris gave me some good information about how to equip a bike for safe travel, and we even did a trial run along Sand Point Way. I’m feeling confident enough to try biking on my trips to Madison Market and for other miscellaneous errands in my neighborhood. Next step: Find a decent used bike.

Highlights of Monday’s class:
• Riding the 74 for the first time (to get there)
• Meeting Patrick Burns McGrath (aka Cascade Commuter)
• The bowl of chocolate kisses in the CBEF office

The things she carried

Spare bus fareFor some reason I have yet to understand, Bus Nerd has entirely too much change. Everywhere he goes, change follows. It is in his pants pockets, in his coat pockets, in his busnerd bag. If you’re ever short bus fare, search the cushions of a couch he has recently sat on; you’re sure to find at least a couple of trips’ worth. And don’t get me started on his (former) bedroom. His spare-change jar filled up at least a year ago, subsequently overflowing onto his nightstand and into his most recent ad-hoc container, a plastic bag on the floor.

Last Thursday, to prevent this change from overflowing its way into our current bedroom, I offered to take it to the free coin-counting machine at the credit union near my office. The plan was to stop there on my way to work, which would have been an unremarkable errand–except that I am a bus chick, and the change I offered to carry weighed almost 35 pounds. Despite Busnerd’s warnings and admonishments, I carried the money in my backpack, along with my laptop and other bus chick necessities, for the entire 15-mile (two buses plus a very long walk) trip. Fortunately, I managed to remain upright for the journey, and I was rewarded at its end. The change added up to $360. I think I’ll use it to buy Busnerd an extra-large piggy bank.

Of course, a 35-pound backpack full of change is far from the oddest thing I’ve carried on the bus. Last month, I carried my wedding dress home on the 27, to the dismay of the clerk at the fancy shop that made it. A couple of Thanksgivings ago, I rode the 3 with a still-warm fried turkey.

And those are just the two of the many. Anyone else carried something odd/unwieldy/embarrassing on the bus?

More transportation in the news

• I-917 has officially failed to qualify for the November ballot. This is Tim Eyman’s second failed initiative of 2006. (The first was referendum 65, an attempt to repeal the gay rights bill.) Now, with the threat of severe funding cuts removed, Sound Transit can move ahead with planned projects–projects like a new Sounder station in Mr. Eyman’s hometown of Mukilteo. Perhaps he’ll decide to embrace the new station and take a traffic-free ride or two into the city. After all, the northbound Sounder provides a fabulous view of a gay nude beach on its way through Woodway.

• Speaking of Sound Transit (and good news): The organization recently received a $2 million federal grant to install accessible “signs” at its stops and stations.

Talking Signs® technology is an infrared wireless communications system that provides remote directional human voice messages…for people with vision, cognitive or reading disabilities…

The system consists of short audio signals sent by invisible infrared light beams from permanently installed transmitters to a hand-held receiver that decodes the signal and delivers the voice message through its speaker or headset.

In case making travel easier for people with visual impairments wasn’t enough, these infrared identifiers apparently provide several other benefits.

Transportation in the news

• Today is the first day of school! It’s also the first day of the Metro transportation pilot for Franklin and Ballard students. Wonder how it’s faring…
• Speaking of schools: There’s a new elementary in Redmond Ridge that’s named after my all-time favorite bus chick, Rosa Parks. Ironically, Rosa Parks Elementary doesn’t currently offer bus transportation. (This is not necessarily a bad thing, since all students live within a mile of the school, and there are organized groups of walkers. But still.)
• A couple of the major travel websites have recently launched programs to help guilt-ridden travelers offset the ecological damage their of their vacations (air travel, car rentals, etc.). Customers who participate pay an additional fee at the time of booking. That fee is then donated (as far as I know, in its entirety) to an organization that works to preserve the environment.
• PCC and Metro are teaming up to reducing driving in the region:

The “Metro Challenge” program at PCC is designed to let residents throughout King County add down-to-earth meaning to the broader policies King County is putting into place to reduce the harmful greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The goal is to show PCC members that they actually can make a difference and improve the quality of life in their neighborhood by taking the bus, walking, bicycling, or even sharing a ride. And, if they try these alternatives just twice a week over a ten-week period instead of driving, Metro and PCC are betting they just may discover there’s a lot more to green than meets the eye.

Amen.

That “other” award

Some of you will recall that, about a month ago, I witnessed a bus driver behaving so rudely toward one of my fellow 48 passengers that I felt compelled to create a new award. Unlike the esteemed Golden Transfer, this is an award of shame, its purpose to expose particularly egregious bus behavior.

I don’t have a name for this award yet. (I like BUSter, BUSted, or Expired Transfer. Busnerd insists on Out of Service. A few readers have also sent some good suggestions.) I do, however, have another winner.

This morning, again on the 48, a woman with a reduced fare card got on the bus without paying. The driver gently reminded her that the ride cost 25 cents. The woman showed the card again and (rather rudely) insisted that she didn’t have to pay. The driver explained that the reduced fare permit entitled her to a reduced-cost trip, not a free one. “You don’t have to pay this time,” she said, “but you should know for the future.”

“I already paid for this card. Why would I pay again? You’re giving me false information.”

The driver, still calm and polite, directed the woman’s attention to the fare sign by the door, which clearly stated that those with reduced fare permits are required to pay 25 cents per ride.

“I’m going to have to talk to your supervisor about this. I’m going to say you’re giving false information.”

The driver attempted to explain the system again, then gave up and continued driving her route. The woman, on the other hand, was not ready to let the subject go.

“You’re giving false information. I’m going to talk to your supervisor. Stop giving me false information.”

And so on, ad nauseam, until it was time for her to get off, at which point she leaned into the driver’s face, screamed (one more time for good measure), “Stop giving false information!” and stormed down the steps.

Perhaps today’s incident was the universe’s attempt to right itself, a reversal of roles intended to rebalance the 48 driver/rider Karma. Now that things are even, let’s have a moratorium on yelling and public humiliation–at least before 9 AM.