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Day’s Verse:
He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Mark 9:36-37
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I love public transportation.
Now, you may be thinking, “Katie, come on! Public transportation has been around for 150 years. Why are you raving about it now? You’re a little behind the ball.” The answer is that public transportation, although started a long time ago, still has yet to catch on in so many suburban and rural areas of the United States, it’s almost a new concept. Plus, public acceptance of mass transportation here in the good old US of A lags even farther behind than our implementation of it. There are so many negative stereotypes that keep people from riding mass transit: It’s dirty, it’s only for poor or homeless people, it’s slow, it’s not very convenient, or ___________ (fill in the blank with your personal reason).
I, however, had an experience today that was totally counter to all stereotypes. I rode my bike to the Bellevue Transit Center, locked my bike in the secure Commuter Connection bike parking areas (where I also chatted with a nice guy who runs a bike shop there from 8:30 to 5:00 on Tuesdays in winter, and daily in the summer), waited about 5 minutes, and got on the Sound Transit 550 express bus to the International District. I paid for my fare with my brand-new ORCA card, which automatically paid my fare when I swiped it across the reader. Thirty minutes later I emerged from the International District transit tunnel at the intersection of 5th and S. Jackson Street, walked two blocks to 3rd and S. Jackson Street, and finished my journey. All told I spent about 1.25 hours and $2.50 traveling from Kirkland to downtown Bellevue, and I got in a 30-minute bike ride to boot: Not too shabby.
I encourage you to try public transportation alternatives next time you need to take a trip. It takes a little more planning ahead, but in the end I think you’ll arrive at your destination happy and glowing green from all the eco-friendliness.
Sadly, I would definitely be arriving glowing green, but not from eco-friendliness. My vulnerability to motion sickness pretty much prevents me from taking any form of public transporation for any length of time. I wish I could comfortably ride the T, take a bus, hop in a taxi without a second thought. It’s such a luxury to me that I’m sure mos people don’t even think about because most people don’t get motion sick. It’d enable me to go to back to school in Boston someday without having to live there, and would save me so much money and stress. The benefits would be overwhelming.
I hope someday they discover a cure for motion sickness beyond dramamine and hypnosis. Then I’ll be all for public transportation in my life!
Unfortunately when I was both living and working in Bellevue, it would have taken me 2.5 hours to get to work on the bus… sigh.
I’ve definitely found Eastsiders to be wary of buses – a wonderful woman I know didn’t want me to tell her 20-year old daughter to take the bus because she was worried about her safety. The only sketchy experiences I’ve had have been waiting at busstops in Seattle later at night, and well, that’s just Seattle later at night in general 🙂
Ben and I think the buses need a good PR campaign, showing hip, likeable, eco-friendly folks taking the bus for everyday activities. Then they could afford to add more routes – yay!