Riding the Bus: Not Easy

I'm a transportation and environmental professional. Twenty-three percent of my adult life I have not had a car at all, and the rest of the time only one (even now--with a family of four). I have ridden transit systems in more than a dozen US cities and three European ones. I put time into studying maps and bus schedules so that I can get around.
So if it's hard or unpleasant or anxiety-ridden for me, then it's going to be virtually impossible (or intolerable) for the person who has either a difficult time or a low tolerance.

About a week ago I was in the Clarendon area and I needed to get to Courthouse. It's about a 12-15 minute walk, but I had lingered and was now cutting my schedule tight. If the ART Bus was coming along, I could hop on and get there in 4-5 minutes. Fortunately, I was actually meeting with someone who had the schedules for the ART buses on hand. I checked the schedule: it said 11:47 AM at Wilson and Highland. I looked at my cell phone: it said 11:43 AM. Perfect--I could be at the stop in about a minute or so.

p>I get to the stop and look at the kiosk. It says 11:45 AM for Wilson and Highland; my phone says it's 11:44. Why don't the kiosk and the schedule jive? Did I make it on time, or was the bus a minute early and I just missed it? I feel just a wee bit of anxiety wondering.

So I wait. 11:47 comes and goes. I wait some more. . . 11:49. Now I'm getting a bit more anxious that it already came. . . or it's not coming at all--I've had the experience where buses just fail to show up entirely--. . .11:51. . .11:52. I'd be most of the way there by now if I had chosen to hoof it, but now I've invested 8 minutes waiting, and I'm shifting my weight from foot to foot, because I was already cutting it close and now I'm using up all my buffer. . .plus some. Do I hail a cab? Keep waiting? Run the 8 blocks? The next bus is scheduled for 12:05. I could go down into the Metro, but at that time of day I could wait 12 minutes for the next train. . .plus there's the extra time getting up and down the escalators.

11:53. Whew! Here it comes. The bus. I end up at Courthouse at exactly the same time as if I had walked (but $1.25 lighter). I have to cut out one task I was hoping to accomplish prior to my next meeting, but I salvage my schedule and am not late.

The bus was about as far off schedule as possible - 80%. Two minutes later and it's 100% off schedule (10 minutes is the most a bus with 20-minute headways can be off; if this bus had been 11 minutes late it would have ostensibly become the 12:05 running 9 minutes early).

If I weren't a transit maven and booster--just a professional businessperson trying to get around Arlington--would I ever take another chance on that bus? Unlikely. In fact, I didn't see anyone else on that bus who resembled a businessperson or professional. If I hadn't had the highly unusual experience of meeting with someone who keeps schedules on hand and happens to know that the bus is called the number 41? Hardly. Easy? Not really. Stress-reducing? Quite the opposite.

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My Commuter Mug

This post is a little off the beaten path - it's more a savvy-consumer post. I generally take my insulated travel coffee mug with me, because I'm a tree hugger and I don't care to waste the paper cup (also, being insulated, it keeps my coffee warm longer). Interestingly, however, about 30% of the time I am given a significant discount (Starbucks sometimes just charges me 50 cents). Today, in fact, I wasn't charged at all; the server just said, "Nevermind, free refills." I'm not angling for the discount--I'm happy to pay for my coffee--but if it's offered, why not?

I think I've probably unintentionally saved at least $20 over the last six months just by having my travel mug with me. Try it yourself. Even if you're a paper-wasting environment hater, it might just save you a few bucks.

Our New Hybrid

We have upgraded our car from a 1999 Toyota Camry to a 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid. I must admit that it's a nice feeling driving the new car. It's especially cool when you "start" it (nothing happens) and then start driving away with no engine running. But I have mixed feelings, too.
Hybrids are great, and our new car should get about 50% better mileage than our old car. We won't ever make a profit--even at $5 gasoline--on the incremental cost, but as an environmentalist I was taking more into consideration than that.
As a husband, I had other things to consider, too. I would have preferred the Prius, which gets even better mileage, but had to "compromise" with my wife--who preferred the larger Camry. (For those of you not in relationships, "compromise" means something entirely different than what the dictionary says.)

So this is good. If everyone made the decision to reduce their environmental footprint at inflection points (remodeling, new car, appliance replacement, etc.) and made a conscious effort to pay attention to their footprint and reduce it each year, then we would be definitely making progress.

On the other hand, even if everyone replaced their car tomorrow with a 40 mpg car or even a 50 mpg car we would still be barreling down the same road to climate catastrophe that we are on now. To avoid the worst outcomes a changed climate will wreak on our future generations, we need to reduce carbon emissions by 80%-90% over the next few decades. That means 250 mpg cars if we keep driving the same mileage we do now. And how you are you going to reduce your energy use in other parts of your life by 90%, too?

So I'll enjoy my new car, but I'll also keep trying to drive it less and bike or walk more. And keep looking for ways to reduce my climate footprint.

Reduce Mercury: Install CFLs

Here's the counterintuitive fact of the day:
Installing CFLs reduces the amount of mercury entering our environment.
It's true that CFLs contain mercury--about 4 milligrams per bulb.
However, the largest source of mercury pollution is the burning of coal in power plants. Mercury pollution from power plants is also worse, because the emissions are completely uncontrolled. Once it gets in the air, we have no control over where it ends up.

This chart (from an EPA fact sheet), shows the emissions of mercury that come from generating the electricity for an incandescent is greater than the total mercury from the CFL. If everyone switched out their lights for CFLs, the total mercury emitted to our environment would be reduced by thousands of pounds.

Mercury is a significant neurotoxin and overall bad pollutant, so be sure to take care when disposing of it (BTW - a watch battery has 5 times the mercury of a CFL, and an old style mercury thermostat--which you may still have on your wall--has 400 times that in a CFL. Dispose of these items properly, too).

So it's a win-win-win-win: a no-brainer, really. Change out as many lights as possible with more efficient lighting, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce mercury and other air pollutants and save money.

80,000 Tons!!

Congratulations Arlington!

Arlington’s design: urban villages, excellent transit, good pedestrian and bicycle facilities, make saving gasoline (and greenhouse gases) easier than most places. Many Arlingtonians are able to get to their jobs, take care of their daily tasks, visit friends and participate in community life without having to drive everywhere. Less driving means less air pollution and less greenhouse gas emissions, helping to reduce our climate change impact.

Transportation statistics bear this out. In the whole Washington region, almost 3 out of 4 workers (74%) drive alone to work, while in Arlington it’s a little over 50%. This difference means about 80,000 fewer tons of CO2 are being emitted than if Arlington County were like the regional average—just from these commuting trips. That’s also more than 8 million gallons of gasoline being saved each year!

Also remarkable is that more than 40% of non-work trips by Arlingtonians are made without driving—the majority of these on foot.

Tell Us Your Car-Free (or Car-Lite) Story

Arlington County makes it easy to live without needing a car. An excellent book recently out by Chris Balish called "How to Live Well Without Owning a Car" is a great resource and an inspiring story (see recommended reading on the left frame). Mr. Balish is not a granola-eating tree hugger. In fact, he owned a $36,000 V8 SUV, which he loved and drove everywhere (listen to his story on NPR). Circumstances made it so that he had to get by without his car for a few days. A few days turned into a couple of weeks and then a month. He suddenly realized that he had $800 more in his bank account and was getting along just fine without the car. So he never bought a new one. And that was in St. Louis!--not New York City or San Francisco. Now he lives in Los Angeles. . .without a car.

What's your story? Arlington County Commuter Services would like to hear from Arlingtonians who live without a car (or perhaps families who live with just one--i.e., "car-lite"). As we continue to improve services and make Arlington easier and easier to get around car-free, we would like to highlight residents who are already experiencing the advantages of the car-free life.

Please email us with your stories and experiences. And don't worry, we won't print or publish anything without talking with you first. Maybe your story will inspire someone else to give it a try, too.
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Steve Offutt, Director - Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), Transportation Projects

I Want a Car Like This!

When I walked my daughter to the school bus on Thursday, I noticed this blank spot where a car had been. Evidently it just levitated itself and flew away to its destination!