bus ride
Recently my winter car broke down. It made some noises I’ve never heard a car make before and then died. This led me to believe it was potentially fatal and expensive to repair. While under the hood trying to find the culprit something occurred to me. What if I don't repair it at all? (Frankly I must finally be growing up because I’m getting a little bored with cars, especially broken ones.) I got out my smart phone and looked up the local bus route. Sure enough there is a CDTA bus that runs near my house and drops me off a few blocks from the office. Sweet! That is, until I mentioned it to anyone.
Several people I talked to thought that taking the city bus on a routine basis was a terrible idea. I'll certainly be lucky to avoid getting mugged, and furthermore, how will I cart home truckloads of supplies from my local discount-club store? My neighbors saw me walking and asked why. After explaining that I was going to catch the bus they pleaded with me to let them give me a ride. Anything but the bus. Even crazier was the idea of not having a car at all. Peoples’ minds were blown. There was so much dissent that I started second-guessing the whole thing.
I decided to follow through with my plan of at least trying to ride the bus, but all the negative feedback had me concerned. Clearly some preparation was in order because it was obviously going to be intense. According to all the hype, I would have to harden up if I was going to survive a city bus ride. First, pushups and bicep curls to look stronger. Next, a high & tight military haircut, followed by shaving my traditional beard into a more sinister looking goatee. I queued up Vulgar Display of Power on my Ipod, grabbed my black leather motorcycle jacket and my meanest looking pair of sunglasses and headed out the door. Here is what I found.
The bus was exactly on time. When the door opened the driver smiled and described the bus route. There were plenty of seats and even though this particular bus wasn't new, it was surprisingly clean. As far as my preparation for war was concerned I can sum it up in one word. Ridiculous. There were mothers with their children, men in suits, and of course, girls chatting on their cell phones. Best of all, there wasn't a hooligan in sight, except for me.
Riding the Albany city bus has been a perfectly acceptable experience and I bet it's similar in other cities. Finding my route and being on foot turned the normally mundane task of getting to work into an adventure. Getting the scenic architecture tour of downtown and letting someone else do the driving almost made the whole thing dare I say, fun. All I did was combine equal parts awareness and common sense and the result was success. Maybe we need to reevaluate how we think about public transportation, specifically the bus. Not only is it environmentally friendly and inexpensive, there is the added bonus of getting a little exercise. If you have considered taking the bus in the past but didn’t for whatever reason it’s worth another look.
Here is a summary of benefits-
1) I postponed towing and repairing my broken-down beater car which temporarily saved me unknown hundreds of dollars.
2) I switched my car insurance to “Withdrawn From Use” which saved me 75% of my insurance costs while allowing me to keep my plates on the car. I don’t have to deal with the DMV or any zoning laws regarding unregistered vehicles, and If something happens to the car while parked it’s still covered.
3) I further lessened my carbon footprint by .3 tons(based on the mileage of my new commute from Nov 1st - April 1st. I plan on putting my real car back on the road in the spring.)
4) I don’t have to buy gasoline this winter saving me an additional $92.37
5) There is another parking space available in our already crowded downtown parking lot. This is important in the winter because the snow banks always eat up a couple of spaces.
6) My total walk round trip is 2.2 miles which helps me burn an extra 200 calories a day and is generally believed to be good for my heart.
Next I’ll introduce you to our building and explain how we were able to positively influence our carbon footprint as a company. Happy New Year and welcome to 2010. I love fresh starts. Let’s do something good.
