I haven't written anything here for months. At least part of the reason is that Tom and I have been riding our bikes on weekend mornings pretty routinely. We go through Piedmont Park to the Eastside Trail on the Beltline and then to Krog Street Market for breakfast. It's a good length of ride for us -- just under 8 miles, I think -- and except for the hills at the very end on the way back, a pretty easy ride.
Sometime last month, Caroline's car (a very old Honda Accord that was old when Kathy and Steve gave it to us years ago) ended up in the shop for almost two weeks. So Tom gave her the van to use while her car was in the shop, and he was going to rent a car. I told him I didn't think that was necessary, that he could use mine, that I could walk to work, or whatever. It's around 2 1/2 miles -- a little far to walk every day, even though I do like to walk, but I certainly could do it and have done it. It's a perfect distance for a bike ride, except for (1) the hills, and more importantly (2) several stretches of road that are too dangerous for biking. So that was out. I did walk to work several days. Some afternoons Tom picked me up, sometimes I walked home.
The second week it occurred to me that I should at least try MARTA. While walking up North Highland, I'd see the buses roaring past me, almost empty. Clearly I would have gotten their faster if I'd taken the bus, even if the buses don't run quite frequently enough. But taking the bus from home to work requires transfer from one bus to another, and it's not that far in the first place, and the transfer on the way home requires crossing two very busy streets, and the buses don't run that frequently, and I didn't really know how to do it anyway. I take MARTA to the airport, sometimes, but I haven't taken a MARTA bus in probably 30 years or more. (I am pretty sure I did take them many years ago when visiting my cousin Reaunell when she lived in Atlanta, but that was a really long time ago.)
When buses don't run so frequently, it matters a lot, having an idea how long it will be before your bus shows up. In Chicago this summer, we used the text feature at the transit stops, where you texted one number to another number, and got right a reply back right away, how long it would be before the next buses or trains were expected. It didn't make them come faster, but you did know (or at least had a pretty good idea) when the bus was going to show up. I found the MARTA app and it had what they called a "real time map" which was helpful but still didn't really tell me whether or not I needed to leave the house now or I could wait five minutes. I wasn't even completely sure where the nearest bus stops were.
But I found the bus stop and used my Breeze card (which I'd bought to ride the train to the airport) and did take the bus to work several times and home or partway home a time or two less. The first bus never had many people on it, but the second one was crowded, and sometimes I ended up standing. The ride wasn't long on either one and once I missed my stop because I was reading something on my phone. Especially in the morning on the nearly empty bus the drivers seemed delighted to see me. Standing by a bus stop sign at the curb with no shelter, no trees, nothing, is really uncomfortable, even if the weather is fine. And the "real time map" was helpful but I still ended up getting confused about where the bus was, and once I decided I'd missed it and headed off on foot, but I hadn't, and a few minutes later it drove past without me.
Then a week or two later I volunteered at one of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition's information tents at Atlanta Streets Alive. A couple guys showed up and set up a tent for the MARTA Army nearby. I asked what the MARTA Army was, and learned it was a group that was working to improve MARTA through citizen-led efforts. MARTA does need to be better but to be fair about it many of the problems they have are not ones that MARTA can solve on their own. But I'm all for citizen-led efforts, so I enlisted on the spot and agreed to adopt a bus stop, now that I know where they are. I went to their meeting Thursday night and learned that there is in fact an app that will tell you when the next bus should come.
But as soon as Caroline's car got out of the shop, and Tom got the van back, I was back to driving to work.
Sometime last month, Caroline's car (a very old Honda Accord that was old when Kathy and Steve gave it to us years ago) ended up in the shop for almost two weeks. So Tom gave her the van to use while her car was in the shop, and he was going to rent a car. I told him I didn't think that was necessary, that he could use mine, that I could walk to work, or whatever. It's around 2 1/2 miles -- a little far to walk every day, even though I do like to walk, but I certainly could do it and have done it. It's a perfect distance for a bike ride, except for (1) the hills, and more importantly (2) several stretches of road that are too dangerous for biking. So that was out. I did walk to work several days. Some afternoons Tom picked me up, sometimes I walked home.
The second week it occurred to me that I should at least try MARTA. While walking up North Highland, I'd see the buses roaring past me, almost empty. Clearly I would have gotten their faster if I'd taken the bus, even if the buses don't run quite frequently enough. But taking the bus from home to work requires transfer from one bus to another, and it's not that far in the first place, and the transfer on the way home requires crossing two very busy streets, and the buses don't run that frequently, and I didn't really know how to do it anyway. I take MARTA to the airport, sometimes, but I haven't taken a MARTA bus in probably 30 years or more. (I am pretty sure I did take them many years ago when visiting my cousin Reaunell when she lived in Atlanta, but that was a really long time ago.)
When buses don't run so frequently, it matters a lot, having an idea how long it will be before your bus shows up. In Chicago this summer, we used the text feature at the transit stops, where you texted one number to another number, and got right a reply back right away, how long it would be before the next buses or trains were expected. It didn't make them come faster, but you did know (or at least had a pretty good idea) when the bus was going to show up. I found the MARTA app and it had what they called a "real time map" which was helpful but still didn't really tell me whether or not I needed to leave the house now or I could wait five minutes. I wasn't even completely sure where the nearest bus stops were.
But I found the bus stop and used my Breeze card (which I'd bought to ride the train to the airport) and did take the bus to work several times and home or partway home a time or two less. The first bus never had many people on it, but the second one was crowded, and sometimes I ended up standing. The ride wasn't long on either one and once I missed my stop because I was reading something on my phone. Especially in the morning on the nearly empty bus the drivers seemed delighted to see me. Standing by a bus stop sign at the curb with no shelter, no trees, nothing, is really uncomfortable, even if the weather is fine. And the "real time map" was helpful but I still ended up getting confused about where the bus was, and once I decided I'd missed it and headed off on foot, but I hadn't, and a few minutes later it drove past without me.
Then a week or two later I volunteered at one of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition's information tents at Atlanta Streets Alive. A couple guys showed up and set up a tent for the MARTA Army nearby. I asked what the MARTA Army was, and learned it was a group that was working to improve MARTA through citizen-led efforts. MARTA does need to be better but to be fair about it many of the problems they have are not ones that MARTA can solve on their own. But I'm all for citizen-led efforts, so I enlisted on the spot and agreed to adopt a bus stop, now that I know where they are. I went to their meeting Thursday night and learned that there is in fact an app that will tell you when the next bus should come.
But as soon as Caroline's car got out of the shop, and Tom got the van back, I was back to driving to work.
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