Transit Challenge....
Clearly, transit's something important to us fellows...
Let's collect our stories/adventures from our transit/transportation adventures.
So far I know we've utilized MARTA in Atlanta, CTA in Chicago, and the good ol' Chapel Hill Transit -- I'm also quite sure that there are many other adventures/urban transit encounters out there (even from this semester alone).
Do share - quips, blurbs, interesting characters, etc. all welcome in the comments!!
Let's collect our stories/adventures from our transit/transportation adventures.
So far I know we've utilized MARTA in Atlanta, CTA in Chicago, and the good ol' Chapel Hill Transit -- I'm also quite sure that there are many other adventures/urban transit encounters out there (even from this semester alone).
Do share - quips, blurbs, interesting characters, etc. all welcome in the comments!!
posted by Jes at
12:09 AM
3 Comments:
Back to back summers in college I travelled around Europe and the United States with the same friend. In Europe, we utilized transit in England, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Denmark.
The next year we drove around the United States. Even though we went for 9 weeks, we only took transit once and for completely non-utilitarian reasons. In Seattle, we took the monorail from the Space Needle to the center of town. We rode the entire monorail line in about ten minutes!
When I was 8, I took a Greyhound Bus from Montpelier to Boston's South Station and the T out to the South Shore.
Last winter, I flew from Austin to Logan Airport, took the Red Line to South Station and the T out to the South Shore.
Almost 20 years in between the two trips to Beantown and I was still completely excited to use public transportation. I love the buzz of public transit, the people watching and yes, even the smell (except in Montreal).
A late reply to Jes's challenge - Happy 2008, Fella's!
My romantic, obsessive fondness for transit took took form in Prague. The metro, the tramvaj, the autobus... I met my two best Czech friends on the bus. Spying on how people spend their commute turns out to be a great way to gauge the feasibility for future friendship.
But back in the US, for me, transit trips have most recently been fraught with fear. My friend was riding the El in Chicago when it derailed last summer; she was trapped in a burning car and had lung problems for weeks from the smoke! On the subway in NYC, I have panic attacks moving between Manhattan and the Burroughs. The tunnels... the cultivated (irrational) fear of "dubious" activity by fellow passengers... To improve transit, I must admit, I feel that infrastructure is important, but can't help but muse that we must also quell the fear-mongering that's been rampant in this country since September, 2001 and replace it with a stronger sense of trust in our neighbors.
Post a Comment
<< Home