take a bus to work

It saves money, and the environment, but why oh why does my route have to pass through THAT section of town? My route is notorious for bums and beggars.

Riding the bus was much more comfortable – in fact, a happy occasion – in the Twin Cities.

My experience riding city buses is: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION (the neighborhoods on your route) makes the experience less or more worthwhile.

When I take the bus to the doctor (the opposite direction from the bus I take to work), it is quite pleasant.

Oh well – I’m moving in a month and a half. Here’s hoping I won’t have to ride the 3 or the 4 anymore. :)

I’m doing it regular now, with my bike. 2-3 times/week. the hard part is getting up earlier.
The cool part is accomplishing something that helps the pocketbook and the carbon reduction thing all at the same time.

Well, I would say definitely mixed results. I’ve been meaning to do this for months, but I finally got on the stick today. I actually took my cheap old bike and locked it up at the park and ride location yesterday, then today I drove to the park and ride, loaded the bike onto the bus, road the bus into Midtown, got my bike off and rode about 2 miles to work (we have shower facilities there, so that helped).

The good: great exercise, will help save a little bit of money compared to fuel and wear and tear on my car, I feel good about doing it, no driving stress, took a little catnap on the way home and felt recharged

the bad: Combined standing around wait time of about 50 minutes, the hills kicked my butt — badly (combination of me being out of shape and my bike being set to the wrong height and being a piece of crap), broke a pretty good sweat getting back to the bus in the afternoon heat (I guess it was good I had a 25 minutes too cool down waiting for the bus — thank goodness I don’t stink when I sweat), hauling a backpack filled with work clothes/shoes and a separate bag with my lunch and work stuff strapped to the bike was cumbersome plus dealing with the helmet.

The bottom line: It took a total of 3 hours of commute time today. Waaay too long for my current life. It normally takes me 65-75 minutes total when I drive. I am not shutting the door, but I need to make some refinements to make this work on a regular basis. I only got to see my daughter for an hour and a half today before her bedtime.

I save money, stress less, and get to feel at least a little good about not adding unnecessarilyy to traffic and fuel consumption.

I took the bus to work today & plan to make it a habit.

I catch the bus to work… everyday.

It’s good because:

- I try not to pay any fares by ducking on the train and bus when there are no agents.it keep costs down..

- you don’t have to pay for parking

It sucks because:

- people stare at me when I sing outloud.. I do this all the time in my car!!!

- people insist on sitting beside me.. so I sit on the edge now

- bus drivers will NOT stop anywhere else other than the bus stop unless you stand in front of the bus and refuse to move.

- you must constantly have lose change

- people look insulted when you stare at them or try to read over their shoulders

- you have to keep a busy schedule

- the train shakes too much

- if you miss it you’re screwed for like 15 minutes

- you lise an hour and a half of your life EVERYDAY sitting on a smelly bus/train with no food and small windows with no fresh air..

now I remember why I started driving.. but shit $250/month for parking is just not going to happen. so yes, it’s still worth it

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t say that riding the bus isn’t worth it, especially as high as gas prices are right now..

But I don’t have great memories of taking the bus to work to downtown Seattle. Having to stand on a bumping ride for an hour, having someone ‘invade’ your space and coughing all of you. Needing to walk 2 miles to just get to the bus stop. Waiting at midnight for the bus home and feeling threatened by unsavory people. Taking three hours to get home in a snow storm.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to ride the bus, and these experiences don’t prompt me to want to do so again.