Public Transportion
Since eight months again, and for the first time in my life, I’ve been using public transportation as my primary daily commuting method. Outside of special occasion here in the Twin Cities and some limited time period on vacation or studying abroad in foreign cities, I’ve never had to rely on a bus, train, or ferry to get to work or school. Because I have a car and this is a country made for cars, it has simply always been easiest and most convenient to drive to where I need to go.
However, now that I’ve started working downtown Minneapolis, I am finally in a situation where mass transit is actually the more convenient and affordable option. As I’ve reflected about how this change to my daily routine has impacted me, I came around to three key benefits to my life, along with a few observations.
Mass transit forces you to comply with somebody else’s schedule. I’ve been lucky to work in jobs where “punching the clock” isn’t a real thing and where there’s flexibility about my start time. However that has some downsides. When I was driving to work every day, I realized there was a lot of variability about when I woke up, how quickly I got ready and how rushed my mornings felt. Since the bus doesn’t wait, I’ve been forced to tighten up my morning routine and build some consistency in my routine to ensure I hit make either the 6:35am bus or the 7:35am bus, depending on whether I’m working out in the morning.
Public transportation forces you to be in close proximity to your neighbors. Some motorcycle communities refer to drivers in cars as “cagers.” and being outside my car has made me realize how true that is. Being in a car comfortable, relatively safe and surprisingly restrive and isolating. Taking the bus sometimes means your nestled much too close for comfort with others. Sometimes these folks aren’t the most savory characters and sometimes they’re a real joy. Either way, it’s been good to interact with my neighbors face to face and seat to seat, even if it’s only for a few minutes every day.
Public transportation cuts your carbon footprint. My commute isn’t that far to begin with but according to one Carbon Savings Calculator I found, I’m saving around 20 pounds of CO2 per week by taking the bus. Not a huge difference in the grand scale of global climate change but it’s better than nothing. Perhaps more importantly, it’s given me a better awareness of what a car-free lifestyle could look like and what changes I’d have to make to other aspects of my lifestyle to truly commit to it.
Ultimately my city and my combination of personal and professional commitments don’t give me the flexibility to go totally car free. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d want to completely give up that independence. But I’m grateful for the commuting options I’m looking forward to seeing more multi-modal transit options in my city’s future.