Jennifer Garrity and Steve Rourke of Metro stopped by my office today and showed me some cool technological tools to use next week as I take the Car-Free Challenge during Alternative Transportation Week.
For someone like me who spends a lot of time on the computer and who isn't a savvy and seasoned bus rider, the new tools really will make things much easier and easy to understand.
So next week I'll be using Metro's My Ride txtLink to access real time bus information on my cell phone when I'm out and about. I'll also download their widget so I can get real-time bus information delivered right to my desktop. Both systems will tell me, in real-time, exactly when the next bus I need to catch will be arriving.
They've also given me access to the beta site of their new mass transit trip planner powered by Google maps. It's a high-tech way to enter the addresses of your departure and destination sites and be shown the bus you catch, where you transfer, when you need to be at the stop, and how long it will take to get from point A to point B -- all superimposed on a Google map. I'm looking forward to testing this out and writing about the experience next week.
All of this will help me as I plan how I'll get by without a car for seven days. There's a lot more to this than I anticipated, but it's starting to come together -- at least in my head.
Speaking of my head, at least one day I will strap on a video camera to my bike helmet so I can record some video of my travels. So if you see a guy on a bike with something odd sticking up from his helmet, more than likely it'll be me.
Be sure to wave.
Good Luck. In rural America mass transit is not a way of life for most folks. Living in major metropolitan areas in the US and Europe, public transit is an accepted and practical form of transportation. Your example my be the push people in your area need to 'join the bus'.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a young kid I used to walk or ride my bike to work. It was good exercise, inexpensive and I lived only a ten minute walk from where I worked. But then I got a job in the Quad Cities and started driving. I eventually moved to the Quad City area to be close to my job. From what I have seen of the mass transit system they can keep it. I had a friend that took the bus to work and it took him longer to get there than if he had walked. But that was almost impossible in the winter. At one time I had several mass transit users that used to work for me at one of the local businesses and if they were scheduled past 9 pm I had to take them home myself. I will keep my van and the city can keep their mass transit.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the bus is absolutely awful for those of us who need to be out after 9 (and in my case, after six as the road in front of my house is only serviced until 6:30). It does take awhile to get anywhere, but not all of us are medically able to drive, so we do what we have to. It's nice to be able to have SOMETHING, and while the bus system is less than ideal it's not the worst thing in the world.
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