I admit I have been remiss in my bus riding mission. Sometime around open enrollment at work, finals at school, and the first blustering winds of the winter season, I decided I was too tired to plan for alternative commuting, and gave up riding the bus while holding onto my interest. However, gas prices are about twenty-five cents higher than they were when they originally motivated me to ditch my car for a while; and it's significantly warmer and sunnier. Last week, I decided I couldn't justify using my car for small, local trips, and I started walking again. Ecofriendly and healthy, too. Granted, even walking isn't the most practical way to get around, but I've found that walking in your city allows you to appreciate it entirely different ways.
Pondering practicality issues, though, I wanted to come up with an alternative in which I could get around faster, but still remain true to my belief that we're a society obsessed with excess and over-consuming. A couple people asked me last fall if I ever used my bike to commute and I told them, a little regretfully, that I did not because I was afraid between the narrow, pot-holed, and debris laden road shoulders, on top of inattentive drivers, that I'd get myself killed. In other words, I'm too wimpy to trust my road bike to get me to and from work in one unmutilated piece.
This weekend, though, I bought myself a new bike; a hybrid bike with a more upright frame and sturdier tires; a red bike. It was the red that sealed the deal. Even in my most principled thinking, I am swayed by the color red. I was so inspired, I named him Brewster. Brewster my new get-around-town bike.
Ironically, while I was renewing my commitment to commuting by any means non-car, I got a comment from someone who's been commuting by bus since May 2007. Support comes at the most serendipitous of times. Excuse my passive voice and go read the blog:
www.albanyquality.blogspot.com
Happy trails! And if you see a tall awkard girl on a red bike, put down your cell phone, and don't scream out the window at her. It scares her.
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1 comment:
I am looking forward to seeing you resume writing about riding the bus.
I calculate, my daily commute costs me $6.50 in gas and another $6,50 in vehicle overhead. That is about 22 daily miles in my 1993 Dodge Van. It currently has 255,000 miles on the odometer.
Last night the San Mateo County ride sharing website called me with a "customer survey".
For starters their website has resulted in 0 rides in 3 years.
Now all that stuff means: more research, thinking, problem solving and thinking needs to continue: By you and by me.
This is the 21st century and it is now appropriate to resume figuring out how the post consumer American society should commute.
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