Today again I took the 41E to the Junction and the 41B to Brookline Boulevard at West Liberty Avenue. I took the walk up the hill and made it to work on time. In the afternoon, I headed off to East LIberty taking the 41D to Downtown and then skipping over to the East Busway to grab the EBA. In the evening, I jumped on the 71A to Downtown, slid up the hill on the incline, and walked home. Overall, things went pretty smoothly.
Today’s tally:
Walked: 3 miles
Bussed: 6 trips
Carpooled: 0
Drove: 0
I was on time this morning, at least for my first bus. When I got to the Junction, I waited for a 41. When neither the D nor the G had come by 8:15am, I jumped on the 41B. This took me to Brookline Boulevard at West Liberty Avenue and I had to walk up the hill. This was nowhere near as difficult as last week’s experiment and I got to the office only a few minutes late.
One of the problems that I have encountered while relying heavily on walking as a mode of transportation is the condition (or lack) of sidewalks along my way. I feel that this problem should be corrected- that pedestrians should have access along all roads- and I suspect that I will be contacting 3-1-1 more often now that in the past.
The rest of the day involved carpooling and, my favorite activity, walking around Downtown.
Today’s tally:
Walked: 1.5 miles
Bussed: 1 trip
Carpooled: 5 trips
Drove: 0
Monday’s transit travels illustrate one of the challenges with the current route design of the Port Authority. After a work meeting at South Side Works, I had to go Downtown in order to get to Brookline. To review, I had to travel north, across the river, to get south of where I started. Between the timing of the busses and because the second bus was late, it took me almost two hours to make that trip. While patience is necessary when using transit, this amount of time devoted to such a short trip is irresponsible. What could I do?
Monday’s tally:
Walked: 1 mile
Bussed: 5 trips
Carpooled: 2 trips
Drove: 0
Sunday was about getting things done. I had been wanting to buy a new couch for over a year, since I moved into my house. Luckily, being a Zipcar member gives me access to a pick-up truck. So, I reserved the truck from 2pm to 6pm on Sunday.
I didn’t get out of the house on time (surprise) so I ended up picking up the truck Downtown at 3. Luckily, that didn’t really impeded my ability to get all my errands done. I bought the couch, loaded it up, dropped it off at my house and had the truck back to Downtown at 6 on the nose.
The evening included a little trip by my favorite form of transportation (feet) to an amazing neighborhood spot (Grandview) eating an unusual snack (graham cracker ice cream).
Sunday’s tally:
Walked: 4 miles
Bussed: 1 trip
Carpooled: 2 trips
Drove: 25 Zipcar miles
Saturday started early with a 9am work meeting in Beechview. The day took me from there to Downtown, East Liberty, Friendship, Shadyside, and eventually the South Side. I was mobile and did very little of it by car.
Saturday’s tally:
Walked: 3 miles
Bussed: 3 trips
Carpooled: 2 trips
Drove: 0
Once again, I missed the ~8am 41’s. I know, I just need to leave the house earlier. So, because I am impatient and didn’t want to be late AGAIN, I tried to find a back-up plan for when I miss the bus that would still get me to the office near on-time. This day, I decided to try the T. I grabbed the 47 to Overbrook, figuring that it would get me close to Brookline. Oh, boy, was that an adventure.
I got off the 47 at the South Bank stop. Where, you might ask, is South Bank? I was there and I’m still not sure. When taking the stairs down from the train platform, I ended up on what looked like a paved trail in the middle of the woods. I followed this “trail” through a right turn until it dead-ended at Route 51(I have now learned from Google Maps that the trail is actually Ansonia Place). I was then forced to walk along 51 to Whited, where i turned uphill. I walked uphill to Jacob Street, to that uphill to Brookline Boulevard, and walked that uphill to my office for a nearly 2 mile walk. Did I mention that it was uphill?
Luckily, my day improved. Later on I succesfully, and on time, grabbed a bus Downtown and then walked to my Zipcar on Duquesne’s campus in order to head out to Latrobe for Steelers training camp (!). I again had no trouble with Zipcar and only had to extend my reservation this time for 0.5 hour due to construction-related traffic on Route 30.
Today’s tally:
Walked: 4 miles
Bussed: 3 trips
Carpooled: 0
Drove: ~70 Zipcar miles
Tuesday makes me quite grateful for South Hills Junction. I didn’t use it for the better part of the first year that I lived in my house, despite being less than a mile away. The Junction is useful but it’s not welcoming. It’s hidden from the world in a valley, surrounded by Port Authority storage and maintenance facilities, and has limited and unsafe access. I actually spend a good portion of my time at work helping the neighborhoods surrounding the Junction to find resources to improve it.
Tuesday morning I was heading to work by walking down to the Junction with a plan to catch the bus. I missed the bus and while waiting for the next one, I got a text message from my co-worker suggesting that I change course and plan to head straight to my morning meeting (in Beechview, rather than Brookline where my office is located). This was exceptionally easy to accommodate at the Junction. I simply crossed the busway to the T tracks and grabbed the next 42 train to Beechview. Despite being on track to be late for work, I ended up being early for the meeting.
I think that this kind of multi-modal transit hub is extremely useful and I am grateful to have it in my neighborhood.
Tuesday’s tally:
Walked: 3.5 miles
Bussed: 7 trips
Carpooled: 2 trips
Drove: 0
Before I even agreed to participate in the Low Car Diet, I had planned a trip to Chicago to see family. As indicated previously, I decided to take a Zipcar on my trip. I drove about 450 miles each way and the trip ended up costing me $336.75, which is actually less than I expected. This being my first use of the Zipcar service, I found it easy to use and had no major problems.
I did have a bumpy re-entry though. It took me 7 hours, including stops, to get out to Chicago so I planned accordingly on the return trip, getting up quite early on Monday morning to get the car back time. Nevertheless, I failed to be punctual and had to extend my reservation two times (0.5 hour each) in order to not be late.
When I left the car in its spot and went to make my way home from the South Side, I had another trial and error experience, this time with the bus. I knew that the 51 -A and -C would get to me where I wanted to go so when the 51B came along, I hopped on with the assumption that it would get me to the same general area. However, the bus made a turn premature of my stop and I had to get off, walk, and find a A or C after all.
Long weekend tally:
Walked: 4 miles
Bussed: 6 trips
Carpooled: 6 trips
Drove: ~900 Zipcar miles
Today I attended two transportation events. This has nothing to do with my Low Car Diet except that thanks to it all my thoughts are pretty much permanently on the subject. First, I attended a fairly useless brown bag lunch where a speaker outlined federal and local sources of transportation project implementation funding. I was familiar with most of the sources, and fairly annoyed at the textbook (i.e. unrealistic) portrayal of our regional transportation agency, also know as our metropolitan planning organization, the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission. (You can view the SPC’s website here but, be warned, do not click the Project Region box…it’s scary.)
The second event was better. It was the cityLive! event for July: “Getting There…From Here: Transportation Solutions for Our Region.” The expert panel, including my boss, had some interesting things to say. A spin-off from the event is that organizers are asking the public to help in the creation of a regional integrated transportation plan by posting their ideas to a wiki. You can visit The CitiWiki Project here. Please contribute your ideas. It’s like monkeys with typewriters, eventually, we’ll get Shakespeare.
My travel today was not so much difficult as draining. After a week of extensive walking, I did my share today as well. I had a minor setback when my BlackBerry’s connection was down for a while and I had to remember which bus to take all on my own and I did miss one bus that I had intended to take. Otherwise, I was just moving slower than normal.
I look a lot of pictures today but thanks to Verizon, only these three (kind of gross ones) survived:
Finally, a moment on costs. In preparation for my new transit-based lifestyle, on Monday I bought a book of Zone 1 tickets from the Port Authority. That is $20.00 for 10 tickets. There is no deal here, the tickets just ensure that you always have the correct change. However, I need to admit poor judgment at the time of purchase. I chose the ticket route over purchasing a weekly pass for $20.00, which provides unlimited trips within the one week period. I would have saved tremendously with a weekly pass. To calculate, I have taken 23 transit trips this week. Now, some of them were transfers, which saved me $1.50 on those trips, but it’s clear that I spent more than I needed to by paying for individual trips rather than buying a pass. Let’s say that 5 of my trips were transfers- that would mean that I took 18 trips at $2.00 and 5 trips at $0.50. That comes to $38.50, which is significantly more than the cost of the weekly pass. Lesson learned.
Today’s tally:
Walked: ~7.5 miles (It’s no wonder I’m exhausted and hungry!)
Bussed: 7 trips
Carpooled: 2 trips
Drove: 0
