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 Winter
2004Rides in the City “Makin’ your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Takin’ a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.” I don’t know if the theme song people intended for those words to have such universal appeal and I’m positive that they weren’t talking about transportation. But I struggled to think of what could be more applicable to transit than those two sentences. I wondered, are commuters vehicles of change or are we just making our way in the world? I took my query to my regular Sunday morning brunch to run it past my touchstones. Alison, Erika, and Stacey are that textbook group of female friends that every girl in the city (and possibly even those in the ‘burbs) uses as sounding boards, confidants, and general sidekicks. Alison, the wide-eyed optimist of the group was constantly searching for perfection, with no doubts that it actually existed. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Erika, our levelheaded realist, always putting our quandaries in perspective. Somewhere in the middle (or way out in left field) was Stacey, the wild child of the group. This diversity made them the perfect assortment with whom to discuss any and all of life’s little mysteries. That particular morning, after looking at me like I was nuts for a few minutes, the girls gave up their usual banter to indulge my work-related talk for a bit. Of course Erika thought I was oversimplifying the daily commute and insisted that it was a lot more than making your way in the world, it was about changing behaviors. Alison agreed with Erika and insisted that without transportation choices, the Washington area would be polluted and a “smog-filled mess!” Stacey lauded transit as the possibility do and see everything in the D.C. area. At a bus dedication the following Tuesday, my mind wandered and I hatched an idea and decided to put my theory to the test. I figured I’d ask the girls to give up their cars for a week (easy for Alison, who didn’t own one anyway) and see if they could exist on transit alone. My question was simple, by taking transit, could we effectively change our lives? The following Sunday I decided to check in at brunch at see how the girls were doing. Alison, our control, was doing great having taken only Metrorail and Metrobus for the 5 days. Erika had cheated only once, taking her car to the grocery store. While Stacey had taken every mode imaginable, from train, to bus, to Guaranteed Ride Home. Personally, I had taken the bus to and from work every day and walked nearly everywhere else I’d had to go. While I was impressed with the girls’ (and my own) behavior, I wasn’t sure I had found an answer to my question. Would we continue our good behavior? Would our resourcefulness rub off on others? I wasn’t sure. It was something I was going to be pondering for a long time and only time would tell. |
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