Another One Rides the Bus

[bigmacbear]

Yesterday at work I got an e-mail stating that my employer is willing to give me a free bus pass if I agree to use it at least an average of 3 days a week. Considering a normal day's commute for me is about 40 miles round trip (or just shy of 2 gallons of gas), this would be a much-needed boost for our combined finances not having to drive quite so much.

So today I decided to try the bus commute for size. The most convenient way for me to do this is as follows:

• Drive to the top of Kennydale Hill and park at the Kennydale United Methodist Church lot which serves as a Park 'n' Ride.
• Walk across to the other side of I-405 and board the express bus to Bellevue. (I could also have left the car at home, walked the opposite direction half a mile or so and caught the same bus at the Boeing bus stop at Park and Logan.)
• Transfer to a second express bus at the Bellevue Transit Center.
• Ride that bus to the off-ramp of I-405 closest to work.
• Walk about half a mile or so (15 minutes) to my office.
• Reverse the whole process on the way home.

If I'm to do this most every day, I think I will need to find a backpack for my laptop. Humping this over-the-shoulder soft-sided briefcase that distance makes my back hurt, probably because the unbalanced weight makes me walk funny.

Other than that, though, the ride was pleasant enough, and I think I will try to make this a habit. Let's see how tomorrow goes.

Comments

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

Those "free" bus passes really make a difference in ridership patterns. I've also been riding the bus a lot lately: This year, WWU instituted a "bus pass for all students" policy ($25 is added to our school bill each quarter for this, so all WWU students get bus passes, and i's totally worth it!). My bus ridership instead of driving is waaaaaaaaay up because of it.

I wish more places would subsidize bus passes. When I was interning for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis back in the '90s, they subsidized bus passes for employees. I *loved* it. Later, when I went to work for the Morris newspaper chain in Augusta, GA, I went to the HR department to find out if I could get a subsidized bus pass. The HR woman looked at me sadly, and asked in that sweet, Southern voice of hers, "You ride the bus?"

After that, I hadn't gotten back into the bus habit until I moved to Bellingham, and WWU started the bus pass project.