I took the plunge!

[screamingflea]

I decided it was A Sign. Yesterday, down to my last fumes, I pulled into a gas station and asked the attendant for a fill. After he stepped off with my debit card I saw the sign - gas had shot up 30 cents a gallon from last week. I didn't have the budget for that! But he was gone.

I felt a little panicky until he came back a few minutes later with my receipt - somehow he had misheard me and only pumped $10 worth. Salvation! So after a little homework today I bought my first monthly bus pass since my college days. I'd resisted for several months because I didn't think I could access my regular haunts, but I can get to just about everything on a single route with a little occasional help from my trusty bike.

Actually it's even better because I just got a wee job ushering at a big sports arena with no parking built in. For anyone. (I suspect the city planners aren't paid too well in this town.) So I'll have to get used to the bus system anyway. This just makes it a lot easier than juggling quarters before every shift.

Wish me luck!

[mara61]

Hey Flea, that's awesome! I wish our community supported public transportation, but not so much. If you don't already, make sure you have a good helmet and bike lock.

Tracy

[Gina]

Years ago when I didn't have a car for almost a year (?), I exclusively relied on the bus and my bike. It took much longer to get places either way, and it was more difficult to carry much. But the bike was good exercise, and the bus was good people watching. We had good services, and extensive, safe bike routes so I could get to almost wherever I wanted.

Alas where I live now, I'm not near any bus route, so even in an emergency that would not be a possible fall-back.

Good luck on your adventure. I suspect as gas prices increase, more people will be using public transportation.

[pcooley]

Good luck. It still feels wonderful, to me, to get around without a car. I have a feeling it's changed our entire way of relating to the world in a positive way, though of course, once you head down one road, it's hard to tell what all the other roads you could have chosen would have been like.

[Bootsie]

As a public transportation user, I love being able to read and commute at the same time. Enjoy. :)

[DarkStar]

I loved riding the train when I lived in Atlanta. So much more relaxing than fighting the awful traffic. Bus rides were better, too. Enjoy your new commute.

[kib]

What I would like to know is why the BLEEP aren't they making my car any more!? The battery on my hybrid Insight is not working properly and I'm still getting 70 mpg. Yes yes they still make a car Called the Insight. It gets around 50 mpg, which is nice, but My Car Is Awesome. May I stamp my feet and yell a little? Yeah, my car is sort of go-cartish, but it's an amazing option for super low gas use for the public-transport deprived that has been taken away. Ridiculous.>:(


But as far as your decision to take advantage of that great public transport in your city, Flea,

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[Dhiana]

Congratulations ScreamingFlea! My husband and I are CarFree here in SoCal and have been very happy with our decision.

Make the most of your time while on the bus; tackle that list of books you've been wanting to read or write a novel. I think that's how Scott Turow(sp?) got started.
It is very popular for Office Ladies in Japan to type chapters/scenes on their cell phones which they then upload each day to their blogs. Some of the more popular ones are then published into books and sold in conventional bookstores.

Check on your car insurance, can you reduce the mileage and receive a cheaper rate? Reduced wear and tear means reduced repairs!

You could learn a foreign language and then travel there with the money you save NOT buying gas :)

Dhiana

[screamingflea]

Thanks everyone. A big reason why I gave up on the bus in my last city was that it was so very urban. Which meant that you could always depend on at least one stinking drunk no matter what time of day or route. There was often at least one seat reeked of urine too. And stressed-out moms loaded down with a month of groceries and a shrieking toddler on each hip. (Not faulting the mothers, but a shriek is a shriek.) This is a very different setting in a semi-rural college town. Even the wrong side of the tracks are picturesque compared to what I've been used to. So hopefully it'll be a lot better.

A major factor that tipped the scales is that the special rate for us handi-capable passengers is only $24 for a month's riding. They even serve the nearby satellite town I'd been hoping for a job in, at the same rate as an in-town ride. Which would be the difference between a 1.50 daily commute as opposed to $10 by car. I'm starting to give up on that though as they've been non-responsive for about three months. Whatever.

I've contemplated selling the car, but I don't think the bus system goes anywhere near my grandmother's Home. That's a real issue. Any road trips could easily be addressed with a car rental though. It's really too soon to say - I haven't even gotten familiar with the bus here at all yet. I do remember how inconvenient it was going carless as a student, so it's going to be a tough sell.

Dhiana, I've been thinking about how to pass that time. I can't exactly read on the bus because I'm very prone to car sickness. Books on tape/CD/download might be a good option though. The ear buds would take the edge off the screaming babies too.

[annq]

Good for you. Take it a step at a time - work your way into doing more and more with the bike and bus. I highly recommend a bike trailer - I can haul 100 pounds of stuff on mine. It's much easier to take a week's worth of groceries on the trailer than on the bus. If your area has car sharing you could look into that for going to Grandma's, though car sharing usually only makes sense for in-town errands and not day trips. Come ask for advice here if you run into questions/issues - there's quite a few of us car-free types here.

[screamingflea]

Thanks annq, I'll just take you upon that!

Today was a head-thumper to be sure. I just got hired on as an usher at a new big spots arena, and today was orientation day for about 200 of us. Getting there in the morning was passable. I live right along a route going downtown, and the express bus serves the arena directly from there. So my commute in was about 45 minutes with minimal waiting in between stops. It would have been 20 minutes by car. Predictable. Slightly annoying perhaps, but not catastrophic.

The return trip was (sorry!) a train wreck. I waited half an hour for the express line, freezing my adorable little tushie off. When it arrived I had to force may way on through a huge dense crowd. For some reason there was a random string quartet occupying at least ten seats at the back with their equipment, music stands, and elbow room for performing. It was about a 10 minute ride to the depot downtown.

Once I got downtown I found that it was another half-hour sit (now in the rain) for the connection that would drop me off at home. The ride itself only took 20 minutes. Total return time? And hour and a half. :0 I thought about biking this morning, but I'm prone to GI woes and I really shouldn't ride when my system is already taking me for a ride. Next time I may just bring the bike and a wait-and-see approach to the return trip. But I'm definitely not putting myself through this again. There has to be a better way.

[Terri]

Sorry to hear it screamingflea. It is exactly that type of experience that soured me on public transportation: too much time waiting, too many people, inconvenient connections, waits in bad areas of town. I have great respect and admiration for everyone who does manage to live car-free, and have travelled to cities that manage to have seamless transportation systems. But my commute is shorter by car and I'd rather spend the time working to pay for the car than travelling on public transit. It's less stressful to me.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I know someone relying on public transit. The bus that used to come every 1/2 hour was cut back to every hour. Then it has decided to periodically not come at all for no rhyme or reason. A bus that only runs every hour that only comes when it feels like it, is worse than worthless. So then it's desperate calls to anyone "can you give me a ride, I'm going to miss my finals?", "can you give me a ride, I'm going to miss the 1st day of the quarter?" etc.. I'm like: that bus route is unreliable, you REALLY need to take another bus instead and stop relying on that one ......

And it's not even necessarily cheaper than driving. Ok, the total cost of owning a car (cost of car, cost of maintenance, cost of insurance, cost of taxes etc.) is more than the cost of taking public transit. But if your just comparing the cost of gas to the cost of comprehensive public transit pass then gas is cheaper!!! Really, gas isn't cheap here, but those monthly passes have gotten shockingly expenses (although maybe you could save by getting a more limited bus pass (for only one area or something) or by paying daily fares).

I admire people who take public transit as well and I believe in supporting it, but I don't think it always makes much sense from a cost and convenience perspective.

[Reyes]

Eugene is a great town for walking, biking, and taking the bus. I live blocks from the downtown station and can anywhere I need to from the station. I mostly walk as my work & school is within a mile, however on cold days like today I was thrilled to see the bus come my was as I was walking. Anyhow, the is a great town for non-car transportation.

[screamingflea]

Just a friendly vent: It took me two and a half hours for grocery shopping today!

The way I've worked it out so far looks like this: I bike with my Burley trailer to the Wal-Mart and leave it there. Hike across the asphalt ocean and cross the street to the bus that takes me to the far superior Winco. Shop Winco, bus back to Wal-Mart, use one of those ubiquitous shopping carts that seem to breed next to bus stops to haul my booty back to the trailer. Bike the remaining seven blocks home.

It's time-consuming, but the Wal-Mart grocery pickings are lousy. Today I went way overboard at Winco simply in the interest of putting off the next trip as long as I can. The first time I did it, it worked out very well with timing the bus in both directions. Today, not so much. I timed the shopping right, but of course I have no control over how long the lines are at the cash register. Which meant a good 20 minute wait outside shivering in the rain. And of course, biking home in the rain from Wal-Mart. I don't care what the forecast says. Next grocery run, I'm wearing my longjohns.

I know I'll figure all this out in time, but these days I find I get exhausted a lot. I only have the energy and initiative for one big event a day. Tomorrow, it's my evening shift at work, and that's it. When I still had the car I had no problem doing 2 or 3 big things a day. But when I'm standing on the curb watching traffic go by, that's a whole different dynamic.

[CatsNK]

Can you take a taxi to the grocery store? Or a zip car? It may be worth the money to save your time. Or take a taxi for part of the trip, at least?

I'm lucky - taking the bus to the store is the same or even shorter than driving. The bus drops me off at the door. I don't have to deal with parking or the parking lot. The bus runs about every 10 minutes in the busy times so waits are negligible. And the store is the nicest one in our area. Love it!

[Dhiana]

yup. been there done that. It's not fun to do Carfree on rainy days :(

You'll probably build up your endurance as you continue riding you bike more, plus with practice as you mentioned you'll get the timing down better. As with anything new it does take some time to get it all right :)

On Friday, I took 3 buses, 1 hr 45 min, up to a crochet class. Had a great time learning to crochet flowers and leaves! Then slogged through the rain up to the train station which then took me to the bus transit center...took the bus to my neighborhood and got off early to buy organic whole chickens at Whole Foods that were on sale that day only. I wanted two but I only got the last lonely little chicken left.
Then slogged the remaining 6 blocks home in the rain instead of waiting for the bus to take me almost to my house. yup. rainy days suck.

But in the end Carfree is worth it. Stress free ride almost doorstep to doorstep, got to read my book and on the way back I practiced the new stitches I learned in class and have completed a project already :)