Thursday, April 3, 2008

Please Note:

  • Walking two miles in the morning will make you so hungry you could eat your hand off. Please don't.
  • People who claim that commuting to work via public transport is relaxing have obviously never commuted to work via public transport. Be prepared.
  • Being five minutes late while driving means 5 minutes late. Five minutes late via PT means 15 minutes late. Plan accordingly.
  • Metro Trip Planner can't help you.
  • While walking into the gates at work, you may feel the urge to hide in the hedges when your co-workers swoop by in their cars, lest they think you got a DUI, because why else would someone take PT to work. Still, stand strong, and hold your ground because those hedges are prickly.
  • The rapid bus stop and the regular bus stop are located across the street from each other forcing you to choose which one you think will come sooner. You will choose wrong.
  • You will feel like a super-hero when you manage to run across the street fast enough to catch the other bus. But you will actually look like a crazy person.
  • You will feel smug when you are able to take the metro to dinner and can avoid paying $10 to park.
  • Everyone else at dinner will either feel defensive about driving to dinner, or will assume you must be a dirty hippie.
  • One person will think you are a public transit heroine. Do not disabuse her of said notion.
  • When you exit the metro at 9:45 pm you will notice that it is raining even though it never rains in LA.
  • But it's okay. You can walk the 1/2 mile to Honda's apartment and then con her into driving you the extra mile and a half home.
  • All the extra exercise will have worn you out to the point where you are ready to collapse into bed at 10:00pm.
  • You will take a shower and realize belatedly that you have no more clean underwear.
  • You will decide to wear boxers as underwear. You will feel a little like a man. But you still have boobs so it's okay.
  • You will fall asleep effortlessly.
  • Then you will wake up at 7:30 am and realize you have to do it all over today.
  • And yet, after all that, commuting on public transit will still seem eminently more doable than you had previously thought.

10 comments:

pink dogwood said...

hilarious - great write up :)

Debbie said...

You are a PT super hero!

EcoGeoFemme said...

Good for you!

Natalie said...

Sweaty Spaghetti, Batman! That was HI-larious!!

Green Bean said...

Yeah! You are my new super hero.

Sam said...

Ha! This was funny.

Plan on guilting alot of enviromentalists by using PT.

Unknown said...

Clearly the inconvenience of public transit is one reason that people don't do it. But it is kinda a chicken and egg thing. Kudos to you for being persistent. Change the world, girl.

organicneedle said...

You are doing great. I find it so interesting how different the attitudes of LA are towards PT verses NYC. Our billionaire mayor takes the subway! There really needs to be a big LA PT PR campaign to make it hip to use. You guys have all the eco-stars out there. Some of those guys need to start putting there little green fannies on the bus or train. Electric car smetric car- get your ass on the train!

Melissa said...

I live in San Jose and our public tranit is a mess too...no joke, I did a google trip planner and with the 2 buses and 1 train it asked me to take for a 6 mile trip, it was going to take 56 minutes to get there!!! People don't have that kind of spare time, that's why they don't use it here, imo. Great post - very funny. I too often think people assume I have a DUI when they see me biking :)

Anonymous said...

A former colleague of mine decided that rather than catching the tram all the way to work, he would get his exercise by catching the tram half way there. He walked the rest of the way in, and walked all the way home. He was an early morning person, so he'd have a big breakfast before starting the trip to work, then arrive at work and have a second breakfast, all before I got my sorry ass into the office. I was walking half the distance.

He figured it took longer, but he didn't have to join a gym, so he saved money and time elsewhere. Also, the more you walk, and the more you use public transport, the easier it gets. Just like learning to drive.