seattle mass transit is such a tit twister

Sorry for the foul language but honestly I'm sick to death of the b.s. that a person has to put up with to commute in this god forsaken city. I know what you're thinking... "move if you don't like it". And I say to that... don't worry, I will.

Anyway mass transit in Seattle is a well documented problem. Besides driving or riding your bike (which is never fun in the winter since it RAINS ALL THE TIME HERE ;-)) there is only one option for most people commuting into downtown or other Seattle metro areas and that is the bus.

Seattle has 3 main bus systems - Sound Transit, Metro and Community Transit. Metro buses service anything within city limits and some outlying areas. Sound Transit services south Seattle suburbs and Community Transit handles the north end suburbs. There's some overlap between the services areas of all three systems but it is negligible.

So here's the thing.... there is a Community Transit bus stop very close to our house. I usually walk to and from there on the days when I go in to work. The Community Transit buses are very clean and comfortable, always have seats available and have wifi. Nothing to complain about there... EXCEPT (!) they do not run frequently unless it is rush hour and even then it's 30-45 mins from one bus to the next. Picture it if you will... me, 7 months pregnant, winter weather and I'm making my way to catch the 5:15 bus. I've left myself plenty of time but as I reach the top of the hill I watch it drive right past me. But it's only 5pm, I say angrily in my head. And I can't run because, well, I'm pretty slow on my feet at this point. So it's another hour of waiting (outside in the cold!) for the next bus. Christ, I just want to go home.

Now take that story and imagine that it happens over and over and over again. How freakin' early do I have to be to catch this bus?! There are also times where the bus just. never. shows. up. By the time a bus actually does roll up it's time for the next scheduled stop (or worse, the one after that). I am positive that you can see the smoke pouring out of my ears on those days.

Moving on, there is the Metro bus. Well it's certainly got more frequent instances than the Comm Trans bus. And for that matter there are many more places to catch these buses as well. But much like any other *free* city bus it wreaks of urine and is usually heavily populated with mentally unstable people. There were times when I was on this bus where I was positive that I would never make it to work because the person sitting in front of me was ranting to himself and rocking so wildly in his seat that I was sure he was going to kill us all.

That leaves Sound Transit - I can't tell you jack shit about that because we don't live in the south end but I hear that it's on par with Comm Trans - posh and clean but you better get to your stop extra early.

So what is the problem, Seattle? Why is there no subway? And don't you dare mention that light rail or that lame ass monorail! How can such an educated, forward thinking community continue to limp along like this? It really feels like I'm missing something. I don't like this car culture. It's partly my fault for not researching this before we moved here but you don't know what you've got til it's gone, right? In NJ I would leave my car sitting parked for weeks. God, I really miss that.

traffic

T is for... traffic?

I don't know anybody that likes traffic. I love road tripping, but don't
particularly like driving, especially to work.

*Currently* my commute is 22 miles each way and takes anywhere from 35
to 75-85 minutes, depending on weather, accidents, whether there's a
game, etc. Of the things that would get me to, say, leave my job (ahem
not that I'm thinking about that cough cough) would be the annoying
traffic and long commute. It really, truly is a grind.

I don't mind grinding it out ... not all the time, anyway. I've been at
my current job for 2 years and have had some fun and done some cool
things. But oh how I miss working in NYC when I walked 8 blocks to the
train, took 2 trains with no-brainer underground connections, then
walked 4 blocks to my job. Those were the days, man! I listened to
music, read books and magazines, and napped on the train. I never had to
gas up the car and it was an easy detour to walk past the grocery store
on my way home.

Yesterday I gassed up our little 4-cylinder Passat wagon, which rocks,
and it was *just* $47. I do that weekly, and my car gets 30 or so
m.p.g.... what a bummer. It's not like public transport is a reasonable
option for me - it would be 3 buses and a minimum of 90 minutes door to
door, plus delays for traffic.

One thing that's cool about Wife is that we get each other. Duh, right?
Anyway, when one of us, yes it's usually me, are driving and really
stuck in traffic, we'll send a picture of the road or a picture of the
speedometer stuck at 4 m.p.h.

Here's the pic is from today. What I wrote to Wife when I sent her the pic: Don't mind me, I'm just driving to work in first gear.

Good times. :)