Building Exercise Into Your Commute

The past few days I've felt a little bit restless, sorta like a dog that needed to be walked.

I was wondering what was going on, when I realized that I am, in fact, like a dog that needs to be walked.

You see, I've had to drive to work the past couple days. And generally, I take the train to work, which involves about 5 miles of walking (.8 miles to the train station then 1.75 miles to work and then back again.) In fact, I walk to work, and then after work change into my running clothes and run the way back.

As a result, I'm in probably the best shape of my life.

When exercise is built into your commute, you can't procrastinate it, or avoid it. If I don't walk, I don't get home.

Now, it's not a pretty walk really. In fact, people who know the area are sometimes taken aback that I walk it. There are short parts of it where there is no sidewalk, and I'm forced to trespass through parking lots to avoid walking in the middle of the road. At these times, I channel my inner Beany getting annoyed at all the drivers and the wide swathes of the road we have allotted them, leaving none for little old pedestrian me.

And it makes for a long commute, especially in the evening where I have to wait a good while for a train.

But I can honestly say that I am so much happier with my commute than I would be stuck in a car in rush hour traffic. I love having time to read on the train. I love that I am getting good exercise. And I REALLY love that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for a gym membership.

Once again: what's good for the planet is good for me. Funny how that works so much of the time, isn't it? ;)

When Public Transit Gets Depressing

Have I mentioned that I hate the bus? I hate the bus. Haaaaaaaaaaate. Buses are slow, they get stuck in traffic, and they don't adhere to any schedule.

But today was without question, the worst experience I’ve ever had on a bus in the whole of my 28 years.

This morning, I got off at the metro station, and was very excited to see the local bus pulling up to the bus stop.

Everyone piled on the bus, and the bus was almost full when the bus driver slammed the door in the face of this young African-American guy who was about to get on the bus.

Immediately, the red flags went up. "Uh oh," I thought. "I think I'm on a large vehicle being operated by a scary bus driver."

I kind of wanted off the bus, but at this point the bus was moving, and I needed to get to work.

“Oh well,” I thought. “How bad could this guy be, really?”

Pretty bad as it turns out.

One of the women sitting at the very front of the bus got really upset that the driver had shut the door on this guy and not allowed him to get on the bus. So … they started arguing.

The bus driver insisted he had a schedule to keep and that he had waited two minutes at the stop.

The woman insisted that it wouldn’t have delayed us really to let that one guy on the bus.

They went back and forth a bit, and then things got really ugly.

The driver started ranting, “I have a schedule! I have my business to keep! Maybe, in your country the buses can keep waiting forever, but I have to keep to the schedule!”

Of course that made the woman FURIOUS. “My country? This is my country!” she yelled at him.

And then he pulled the “No you di’int just say that,” line.

“Why don’t you just go back to your own country?” he spat at her.

Let me say here, I could tell by their accents that both the bus driver and the woman were clearly immigrants. So for them to be engaging in this kind of vitriol, for the bus driver to be telling this woman to “go back to her country” when he himself CLEARLY wasn’t born here was … profoundly depressing. I can handle xenophobic native-born. I’m not saying I like it, but I can handle it. But there is something worse about a xenophobic immigrant. Something more corrosive.

Then the driver pulled up to the first bus stop after the metro station, and stopped. He demanded she get off the bus.

She refused.

So he refused to move.

We stayed at the bus stop for two minutes. Then three. Then five.

I started wondering what happened to his precious schedule now?

People started pleading with the bus driver. Other people started asking the woman to get off the bus.

Neither would budge.

Finally, pretty much everyone else EXCEPT for the bus driver and the woman exited the bus.

I called a co-worker to see if she could pick me up.

And then, after ten minutes of being stranded, the bus driver for a rapid bus courteously stopped and picked us up even though we weren’t at a rapid bus stop.

Thankfully I was only fifteen minutes late to work.

The first thing I did when I arrived at work was to call Metro to report the bus driver. Metro, of course, took a very different view of the situation than I did. The customer service rep told me that bus drivers are trained to stop at a station if they get into a fight which would impact their driving.

I get it. But frankly? I don’t think the driver stopped the bus because he was too angry to drive. I think the whole thing was a power-play.

And while I admit that the woman was out of line haranguing the bus driver while he drove, he’s the one who escalated it. Besides, crazy people heckle bus drivers every day. If he can’t handle it, should he really be driving the bus at all?

And finally, I believe that if the young black man trying to get on the bus had been white, the bus driver wouldn’t have slammed the door on his face. Am I reading too much into it?

I’d kind of like to believe that the angry bus driver was just angry and would have slammed the door in the face of any person, white, black, Latino, or Asian. But I really don’t believe that.

And now I kind of want to drive to work tomorrow. I wish that the Metro customer service rep had seemed more upset by my report.

I really hate the bus.

Wa-Pshhh! (That's The Sound of My Whip)

I got my computer back today! Hooray! Oh, computer, how I missed you. The last few days have been so lonely, like I was missing an arm ... or something. :)

Also, I think I managed to completely shock the guy behind the counter today because I took my iBook out of the padded plastic sleeve they gave me and then authoritatively said, "Here, you can take this back and reuse this for someone else's computer." I mean, really. I appreciate that they needed to protect my computer, but at this point, I had my briefcase with me and I did not need the sleeve. But I didn't want to watch them just throw the sleeve in the trash either!

"Okay," he meekly acquiesced, taking the plastic sleeve from me, and smoothing the creases from it.

Yes, Apple! You will reuse plastic sleeves, and you will like it!! Or else I will whip you all with my second-hand leather riding crop! (I do have a whip, right, Green Bean?)

Also, yesterday, I got an email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asking me to "voice my outrage" about the price of gas. Now, look, I certainly am not pro-big oil profiteering, but I actually think the high cost of gasoline is a GOOD thing, and I wish the government would tax the hell out of gas here like they do in Europe. (And yes, I've heard the argument that a gas tax is a regressive tax, and I used to implicitly believe that argument too, until I read this blog post. Joe Romm makes a pretty compelling argument that the gas tax is only regressive across upper income groups.) So anyway, the DCCC wanted to know what in TARNATION I was paying for gas these days, and all the comments were like, "$3.70! Help!!" And I was feeling cranky and snarky, so I wrote, "NOTHING! I take Metro. Let's fund PT!!"

Yeah, they deleted my comment. I'm so proud of my Party.

All Right, You Guys Win

Yesterday afternoon I got a call saying that my iBook had been repaired and was ready for pick up (yay!) In order for me to make it to the mall and back on my lunch hour, I had to drive to work today. And, uh, I hate to say it, but ... I kinda missed my morning walk.

And the extra 40 minutes sleep may not have been as awesome as I remembered it.

And uh, I am maybe sort of, a little bit looking forward to going back to Metro tomorrow.

But, shhhhhhhhhhh! Don't tell anyone!

The One In Which I Whine (Be Forewarned)

This morning, I was walking to work doing my daily "I hate this challenge, I hate this challenge, I hate this challenge," affirmations, when I realized that I was being a little unfair. I do not hate this challenge per se. In fact, there are certain aspects of it (like reading on the Metro) which are quite nice.

So my anger is probably a little displaced. I don't hate monthly challenges. Or public transit. Or saving money on gasoline. Or the Earth. Or Al Gore. In fact, I think I just hate exercise.

I know, I know, exercise is so goooooooood for me. I should be HAPPY that you know, my heart is probably doing better, and like, my legs are getting stronger, and that walking two miles no longer makes me want to die.

Yeah, well you know what? All that might be true, but there is no denying that exercise SUCKS. It is tiring, and painful and ohmygod I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate it so much! Why can't I just drive my stupid car like everyone else and then come home and sit on the couch and eat bonbons? And then I have to wake up EARLY so I can WALK some more, and I LOVE SLEEP. I LOVE SLEEP MORE THAN ALMOST ANYTHING ELSE.

So I hope you're happy, stupid Earth. Just for you, I am walking when I could be sleeping. JUST FOR YOU. Don't let anyone tell you that I am getting ANY BENEFIT WHATSOEVER OUT OF THIS. Cuz I am totally totally not! You hear me, Earth!?! Hello?!!

Busted!

When I first started my April challenge, I decided to keep it on the DL as much as possible at work. I know, I know, we shouldn't shy away from showing people our eco-friendly side, and as most of you could guess from my posts about toilet paper, diva cups, and underwear, I'm not exactly the shy and retiring type anyway. But even my eco-nuttery has its limits, and while I do bring in my own dishes and cutlery for my lunches, bring a hand towel instead of paper towels, and use the kitchen trash instead of the trash can at my desk, I try not to call much attention to any of these actions at my job.

So when I decided to start taking public transit to work, I told Awesomest Co-worker (who responded with typical Awesomest Co-worker enthusiasm) and no one else. Mayor Bloomberg may take the subway to work in New York, but I was pretty convinced that everyone at my work here would think taking public transit to work was the height of eco-insanity. (Now that I'm thinking about this, I think this is really about the bus. A subway seems like a decent option for working people, but there is something about a bus that has more of a stigma attached to it.)

For almost two weeks, I managed to keep it quiet, slipping into work and out of work all stealth-like. And then, today, as I was walking towards the gate, I saw Boss 1 drive by. And two seconds later, Boss 2 zoomed past.

Crap, I thought. Well, maybe they did not notice me?

I hurried to the building with the idea that, I don't know, if I got into the office quickly enough, they might see me at my computer and think, "Oh that couldn't have been Arduous I saw on the street, because she's sitting here working."

Yeah, not so much. In fact, as soon as Boss 2 walked into the office, the first question she had was, "Why were you walking into the gates this morning? Are you parking in some weird location?"

"Ha ha," I laughed nervously. "No, no, not parking anywhere weird."

She looked at me quizzically but let it go and walked into her office. Yes, I thought! I have successfully deflected.

Of course then, Boss 1 walked in. "What were you doing walking into the gates?" he immediately wanted to know.

"Yes! You saw her too!" Boss 2 exclaimed.

Meanwhile my face was turning bright, bright red, and Awesomest Co-worker was doing her best not to laugh. "She's going green!" she told them.

"Ummm, I take the metro to work," I mumbled, "because I walk to the metro station so I get my cardio!" (Because Angelenos hate the earth, but love to work out, right?)

Well, needless to say, all my bosses thought it was cool and not insane. In fact, it turns out Boss 2's husband actually takes public transportation fairly regularly. And Boss 1 was mostly concerned about my safety, but as soon as I had reassured him that yes, there were plenty of people who took the metro, and yes it was safe, and yes, if it was late at night, I would get a ride or call a cab or something, he seemed pretty impressed that not only did I take public transit, but that I walked two miles to the metro.

And then they all had a million questions about how long it took versus a car, and how often I did this, etc etc. And it was so NICE, because nothing against anyone I work with, because they are all wonderful people, but I just ... did not expect that kind of warm reception. I expected people to think I was weird. But they didn't. Instead, they seemed to think that what I was doing was awesome.

And I got to tell you, as embarassed as I was to come out of the eco-closet, it turned out really well, and really served as yet another reminder that people are often cooler and more accepting than we give them credit for being. Life less plastic recently wrote about her fantasy world, where no one thinks you're weird for doing something good for the environment. Today, I realized that I'm living in that fantasy world.

It's a good day.

On Calculating Carbon Emissions

I hate to belabor this point, but I'm starting to wonder if we're all approaching carbon emissions for transportation the wrong way.

Yesterday, Will from Green Couple wrote a post entitled, "What's the Best Way to Get From Here to There." He had recently driven with some friends to Wisconsin, and he calculated the carbon emissions that the trip generated. Then he calculated what his emissions would have been had he taken a bus, train, or plane. The plane was the most emissions-heavy, followed by the train, the bus, and then the car. So, Will made the most emissions-efficient choice, correct? And we should all try and carpool when we are traveling long distances, right?

Except, hold on a second. As Will points out, "A plane, train, or bus isn’t going to produce that much less CO2 just because we’re not riding."

And therein lies the logical fallacy. It's all very well to try to calculate individual carbon emissions, but the truth is, carbon emissions don't really work like we're pretending they work.

In fact, had Will taken a train, or a bus, or even (quel horreur!) a plane, the total world carbon emissions would have decreased by the amount of carbon emissions caused by the car, and increased by the amount of carbon emissions caused by Will and his friend's weight. In other words, driving a car is only the most carbon efficient method IF the carbon emissions Will and his friends's weight cause on a plane, bus, or train is GREATER than the TOTAL emissions of the car. Which seems pretty unlikely.

To put it differently, let's consider this: because Will chose not to take the bus, the per passenger miles per gallon on the bus went down. So Will might think, oh hey, my individual carbon emissions were lower because I was in the car, but actually he caused the carbon emissions of every passenger on the bus to go up because he chose to ride in a car instead of a bus.

So what's the answer here? I hesitate to draw this out to airplanes and long distance trains, but in terms of city-wide public transport, the answer is pretty clear to me. In my opinion, a city's public transit belongs to every single citizen of the city, and NOT just the citizens who use it. So the true calculation of carbon emissions would be where we calculated the total carbon emissions caused by a city's public transport, and divided it up by every citizen in that city. Then an individual calculating her emissions would add that to her individual car emissions to get her actual total.

But that's not fair! I don't ride the bus!

True. But we pay for a lot of things we don't use. To me, the best analogy here is that even if you choose to send your child to a private school, you still have to pay for public schools. Similarly, even if you still drive to work, you should have to pay for the carbon emissions of public transit. That's the point of a "public" system. We may not all use it, but its there for everyone's benefit.

Ok, Arduous, but does this nerdy mathery really matter?

I think it does. Look, a lot of us are in uncharted waters. We are faced with decisions like "organic in plastic" or "conventional in glass" every day. And a lot of the time, we rely on things like what I'd call conventional green wisdom or carbon calculators to figure out what makes the most sense. But sometimes, conventional wisdom, even conventional green wisdom, is wrong. And that can lead us to make decisions that might not make the most sense. For example, if a bus I was taking only had three people in it, I might think, oh well then I might as well drive because that is the most carbon efficient. Or I might think it made more sense to drive across country to see my sister than to fly. But the reality is, those buses and planes ARE going to be in service no matter what I do. So, to me, the logical choice is to always err on the side of a communal form of transportation, be it a bus, a train, or yes, even a plane. Because while I believe that it is possible to eventually cause a decrease in bus paths or plane rides, we also have to deal with the here and now. Besides which, you have to ask yourself, do we really want all those people on buses, trains, and planes in cars and on the roads instead? Is that really the answer?

(By the way, Will, I hope you understand I just used you as a guinea pig. I thought your post was great, and incredibly thought provoking which is why I ended up writing this post in response. And, needless to say, I am certainly not casting aspersions on your choice to take a car to Wisconsin. I like road trips myself. And I'm currently hating on the bus. But that's another story for another day.)

LA Metro: Normal People Need Not Ride

I have a shameful secret to tell you all. Come closer. Closer. Closer. Okay, too close, move back just a tad. Okay, you ready?

Here is my secret: I have lived in LA for 6 1/2 years and prior to ApPTMo, I had used public transportation in LA exactly ... once.

Yes, you read that correctly. Un, Uno, Ek, however you want to say it, ONE time. And what's more, for five of those 6 1/2 years, I even lived about 15 minutes walking from a metro station.

And yet, it never occurred to me to you know, use it.

A few days ago, Orgie commented on how different the perception of public transport is in LA compared to New York. This is actually a pretty important point. The attitude towards the metro is very different in LA. Just today, it came up in email conversation that I took the metro to work today, and the response I got was, "Wow, who knew that normal people did that!"

Who, indeed. I know that some of you are probably surprised by that response, and I admit, it gave me a moment's pause, but the truth is, there is a kernel of truth to her response. If we substitute the cavalier use of the word "normal" for "person who owns/can afford a car" she's pretty much dead on.

Los Angeles likes to boast its very high metro ridership numbers, but those numbers have to be looked at in context. Obviously Los Angeles has high ridership. Its a city of 3.8 million. But what percentage of Angelenos use public transit? And here LA falls flat on its face. By this calculation, LA ranks a dismal 34th at 10.64% of the population using public transportation to get to work. In fact, LA does worse than Seattle, Oakland, Portland, and surprisingly, Daly City, California and Buffalo, New York. (Okay, well I guess Daly City probably has a decent number of residents who take BART to San Francisco, but Buffalo, really?)

So, it's all very well for LA to boast their ridership, but frankly, in my mind, a successful public transit program doesn't just reach those who have no other option. A truly successful public transport program reaches beyond those who can't afford a car, and attracts riders who CAN afford a car, but choose to commute via PT because its easier/faster/more relaxing, etc. The LA Metro is generally none of these things. And thus, anyone who can afford to drive, drives.

Hopefully, one day, I'll mention that I took the metro to work, and I'll be met with a casual, "Oh yeah, me too." But I've got to be honest, I'm not holding my breath.

Black Lipstick Not Optional

Some of you may notice in my side bar I'm keeping track of my car miles and public transit miles this month. This is for you, so you can keep an eye on me through this challenge, but mostly it's for me, so I can see through the month how those numbers are progressing and to make it easier to calculate my Riot 4 Austerity progress at the end of the month.

If you haven't heard of Riot 4 Austerity, check it out, especially the calculator which is kind of fun to play around with if you are a nerd like me. Now I don't "officially" riot, because well, I'm not that cool, and also I hear they require you to wear black lipstick and black armbands. I kid! I kid! Riot is totally black armband-OPTIONAL. But I like to check out my numbers from time to time and see how I line up with the average American. And in general, I do pretty well. Last time I ran the numbers, my electricity was at 11% of the average American's usage, my garbage was at 9%, and of course, my pride and joy, consumer goods has been holding steady at under one percent since August! (Under Riot rules, used goods you buy count as 10% of new items, but I typically spend less than $25 even on used items each month.)

Point being, I'm fairly happy with my performance in most of the categories. Except one. My big flaming letter F is, of course, in gasoline consumption. In March I used 95% of the average American's gasoline consumption. And that is from driving alone! I shudder to think what my numbers were like in February when I flew to Chicago for a funeral.

I'm hoping with this challenge to bring that number down. How far down? Faaar down. In fact, I would love it if I could bring it down to 20%, but I'll settle for cutting my gasoline consumption in half. (Incidentally, I think the Riot calculator for public transportation is pretty flawed. First of all, saying public transit counts as 100 miles to the gallon seems a little arbitrary and a little low. Second of all, subways don't run on gas, they run on electricity. But in the absence of a more sophisticated calculator, I guess I'll go with it. Anyone who both riots and uses the subway wants to tell me how to calculate that? Orgie, Beany, I'm looking at you.) Additionally, I'm using Google maps to calculate public transport mileage. It's not entirely accurate because it calculates drive miles, but I figure it's close enough.

In terms of car miles, if, say, I con Honda into driving me home from her apartment, I'm counting her round-trip mileage even though I only ride with her one way. (I figure, she's driving because of me, so the round-trip consumption should be on me.) On the other hand, if Erin picks me up on our way to Spaceland likes she did last night, I'm only counting half the miles since there are two people in the car.

All right, I hope that clears up any questions about the methodology I'm using. Happy Friday, all!

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.

April Challenge- ApPTMo

I knew I wanted a good challenge this month what with it being Earth Month and all. Also, April 12th marks my 6 monthaversary of blogging. Hooray! But I was kind of stumped as to what this "big" challenge could be.

Luckily my friend Honda came to my rescue. Honda likes to dare me to do stuff that she doesn't think I'll do- like jumping into a public fountain. And when it comes to Honda's dares, I am like Marty McFly- I can never chicken out. So when Honda dared me to do a month of using public transit to get to work ... well I just couldn't say no.

So that's what I'm doing. For one month I will take public transit to work at least four days a week. I kind of can't believe I'm doing this.

Now, many of you may be thinking, wow, what's the fuss about? Well let me tell you what the fuss is about. This is Hell-A! People do not take public transit in LA. I mean, really, they don't. Today I went down to the metro station during RUSH HOUR and the only people descending the stairs were me and some other guy. And then it turned out the other guy was just running stairs.

Why do people not take public transit in LA? Because, it sucks. The metro is clean and fast and purty but runs too few places. And the buses are slow and crowded and are totally unreliable. Besides, to me, buses are like the worst form of public transit ever. You have all the hassles of traffic AND the bus is stopping every five seconds to let people on and off.

So, the first thing I did when I started considering this challenge was go to Metro Trip Planner to see how long my commute would take via public transit. I am blessed with a very easy commute. There's almost never any traffic and I can drive from my apartment to work in about 20 minutes. I knew that public transit would never take 20 minutes, but I figured maybe it would take about 45? Which seemed pretty decent and I was prepared to do it.

According to Metro Trip Planner, if I wanted to get to my office by 9:00 am, I would have to be at the bus stop at 7:25 am. Gotta love LA, huh.

So clearly, THAT wasn't happening. And then I had a brain wave! What if instead of taking the bus from the nearest bus stop, I walked two miles to the nearest metro stop, and then took the metro most of the way. From there, it's just a five minute bus ride to work. The advantage of this plan was I could leave the apartment at 8:00 am instead of 7:20, and I would get to spend the majority of my time on the metro which is infinitely better than the bus. And, and this is really what sold this idea for me, I'd be walking four miles a day, so the walk time could double as both commute AND exercise. It would be like multi-tasking!

So, how's it going? Well ... having done this exactly once so far, it seems doable. But I'll keep you updated. I imagine that the 2 mile walk home after a long day at work is not exactly going to be my most favorite thing ever. On the other hand, not having to buy as much gas? That will be the awesome. Especially as its now around $3.70 a gallon....

Driving While Partisan

While I was driving to work today, I committed my good driver citizen act of the day and stopped to let someone get into my lane. And then I saw that he had a "Viva Bush" bumper sticker on his car, and I immediately regretted letting him in.

I know, I know, that kind of knee jerk partisanship is what's destroying discourse in America, blah blah blah, but "Viva Bush?" Really?