I was on my way home from the second Agent of Change class last night, or at least trying to be, when my attempts at sprinting for the bus, which was currently pulled over at the stop, left me choking on fumes as it pulled out just as I was approaching. I knew the next stop was around the corner, so I made a dash for it. Once again, as I got within reach of the back of the bus it pulled away despite my pleas of “nnnnoooooooo!” So there I was, left standing in the 30-something degree weather with a bus ticket that expired in 10 minutes and an iPod that was going to die any moment.
I take Tri Met all the time, and am always trying to advocate for public transit, but I have to admit sometimes it’s hard. People realize that parking downtown after seven is free (albeit trying to find a spot is akin to trying to find Waldo on the last page of the Where’s Waldo book where there are thousands of Waldos…), and it’s also widely realized that with your car you can control when you leave. Although Transit Tracker is awesome (you can call or text and get next arrivals in real time) the bus leaves you at the mercy of its schedule, especially at night when buses start to come less frequently.
As I sat at the stop, just glad it wasn’t raining, I started to write a blog post in my head. In class that evening, we had talked about how agents of change need to be authentic and trustworthy, so I figured I might as well put it out there in this blog that sometimes sustainability requires you to step out of your comfort zone. You don’t necessarily have to give up as much as you think, but some steps require patience and being ok with not getting everything you want now now now. As I was sitting there, someone slowly approached me with the “I think I know you from somewhere but I’m not entirely sure it’s actually you” look on their face, and it turns out it was someone I haven’t seen in eight months. Because we had nothing else to do besides wait, we had a chance to catch up and chat some about sustainability, and about his job in the realm of sustainable journalism.
I love the idea that taking public transportation presents a great chance to bump into your friends and coworkers, and provides you the opportunity to talk more to people than you normally do or would have the chance to while driving your car. It also offers a common ground that you share with everyone else riding, something that caused a group of women on my bus line to form a “Bus Club.” Though I never met these women, my roommate started chatting with them on the 8:05-8:22am ride in. They told her about Bus Club, and invited her out to one of their monthly breakfast get-togethers . These women were complete strangers who just happened to take the same bus downtown every morning which became the jumping-off point of their friendship.
The moral of these stories is that if you can’t control the exact minute you leave everyday or sometimes have to wait, it can be a good thing. In this day and age it seems like people think of waiting as such a bad thing, but when you consider the opportunities public transit offers, there are many more that allow you to meet and interact with your community as compared to sitting in your car alone.
And have you seen some of the things people are knitting on the bus these days?
