CHARACTER DIFFERENCES

I haven't figured out the numbers yet, but I think I'm finding out it's more efficient to walk around Albany than it is to drive or to wait for the bus. I can calculate miles and fares and estimated gas dollars; it's harder to put a number on quality of time. That being said, however, I started to falter in my mission this morning. I don't know if it was the cold, the leg cramp, or the huge blisters on my feet, but somehow today, I just wanted to blink my eyes and be at work (well, you know what I mean).

I refused to give in to the laziness or the blisters, though, and opted for a new route. I think this one's going to work out - aside from waiting time, it offers the least amount walking. Instead of trying to get on the right 9 to the 12, it entails taking to 13 to the 30 (30! who knew?) to the 12.

Actually, my swiper still hadn't arrived in the mail, and I only had enough money for two buses, so I walked the 30 route up Allen. It was a pretty walk. Very residential. Nice houses. It held the kind of quaint suburban charm that appeals to my somewhat snobby farm girl sensibilities.

When I got to Washington, I figured I'd missed the 12 I usually took by about ten minutes. I asked a young man standing in the bus stop shelter if he knew when the next bus was coming. He shrugged and said, "I don't know. I been out here for like half an hour," and lit a cigarette. I smoked with him, but outside the shelter.

The bus finally came. I had a little trouble shoving my dollar into the slot, joked about it to the driver, and took a seat long enough to get off in three minutes anyway to walk into work.

I was going to ride all the way home, but when I pulled the cord at Allen to catch the 30 a block away from there, it didn't signal the driver, so I had to pull harder on a different part of the cord and hop off two blocks down. By then, it just made more sense to walk the rest of the way. The walk itself only took twenty minutes, and there were still enough people out that it felt safe.

I was thinking tonight about the differences between public transportation here versus public transportation I've taken in Boston and D.C. The systems there, though I've only ever ridden subways and commuter trains, have a sort of rushed young professionalism about them. There's a slight hint of it here, especially on the 13, which runs up New Scotland, and sometimes on the 12 if you happen to ride with state workers; but the character of it is vastly different.

According to CDTA's January 2007 Transit Development Plan, it describes its current rider profile as:

• CDTA riders are loyal; over 50% have been riding for longer than 10 years.
• 60% of riders have no or limited access to a car.
• 55% of riders are female; 45% are male; 50% are between 35-54 years old; 20%
are 55-65
• The major trip purpose is work (70% of all trips).

Of those people that don't ride:
• People who don’t ride buses have ready access to cars. Congestion does not
impact their mobility.
• People acknowledge the benefits of riding buses, but don’t perceive the benefits
as great enough to outweigh the perceived loss of independence and freedom
that comes with auto travel.
• CDTA service is not perceived as convenient to them or important to their
current lifestyle.

I zeroed in on the "limited or no access to a car," along with the report's claim that service is adequate for centralized city areas, but many people in the region live in suburban areas. The report also states that household demographics of the area show that individuals living in suburbs have both greater incomes, and greater access to cars overall. Maybe since higher income earners live further outside central city areas, and CDTA has less service to those areas, there's no incentive to use public transportation for those individuals. I'll have to look up statistics on public transportation providers in other areas; the difference in character might just be that there's a greater mix of individuals riding in bigger cities. Here, the greatest use seems to be among people who don't really have any other choice.

I will say, though, that when I sat down next to a very pierced young woman with a Human Rights Campaign patch on her bag; and then a young man got on later, whipped out a notebook and started writing what looked like poetry from across the aisle, I felt about as "big-city" as anywhere else I've ever visited.

In any case, something to think about.

My swiper was in the mailbox when I got home. I have some errands to run this weekend, and I want to see how it is using public transportation to go to multiple locations, especially those too far from home to walk.



Sources:
CDTA January 2007 Transit Development Program,
http://www.cdta.org/pdfs/Transit%20Development%20Plan%202007/Transit%20Development%20Plan%20January%202007%20Final.pdf