"Do You Understand. My Children Play in That Clear Zone?"

It's been a while since I've updated.  Temperatures have dropped into the arctic zone, which makes it tough to want to ride my bike or run part of the way to work everyday, especially when the heat in my single occupancy vehicle works so well.  I did leave the car at home today, however, opting for the metro from Jon's apartment to my office.

I've still got a "wrap up" post brewing in my head about my experience without a car and I think the weeks since I've gotten my car back have helped me to reflect.  In the meantime, PLEASE watch this hilarious video I picked up from (who else?) David Alpert at Greater Greater Washington.  It's a conversation between a traffic engineer and a concerned neighbor who lives on a quiet, safe street.  In the engineer's defense, he's just relying on his "traffic standards" but this hysterical video underscores the need to think outside of the four lane road and about traffic standards that actually reflect the changing ways people get around. 

Intelligent Cities

The National Building Museum has a new project underway called "Intelligent Cities".  They're collaborating with TIME, IBM, and The Rockefeller Foundation to study the evolving way people make decisions on the kind of place they locate and how they choose their home.  They embark on this study in the context of the "intersection of information technology and urban design".

The surveys they conduct play a crucial role in completing this study.  Their first survey, which anyone can and is encouraged to take, has to do with choosing a place to live.  One of the options is "[I] can walk or bike to stuff I like to do."  Of course, this was one of the criterion that was important to me when I located in downtown Silver Spring.

When I completed the survey, I was shocked to see that this was the most chosen response among participants.

"[I] can walk or bike to stuff I like to do" got more votes than "near my job", "good school district", and "money" - traditional reasons on which people are thought to base this major decision.  Of course, I suspect the average age of poll participants skews younger, but I think the results are still pretty legit.  Not only was "[I] can walk or bike to stuff..." the top choice to the question in the past tense ("what were your reasons at the time you chose?"), it was also the top choice in the present tense ("if you were choosing now, what would your top two reasons be?").

"[I] can walk or bike to stuff..." was the only choice to get more votes in the present tense - every other criterion got less votes when the question shifted from the past to the present.  I interpret this to mean that while some people may not have prioritized walkable/bikeable proximity to their favorite destinations the first time around, they now see it as a more compelling priority to weigh the next time they make a move.  Or, they were surprised by the convenience of walk/bike-ability and will weigh it heavily in the future.  I believe the results of the third question support my theory.

Of the participants whose priorities did change, "[I] want to be able to walk / bike to restaurants and retail" was the top vote getter.  I believe the results of the survey indicate what we already know:  that people's preferences for where they live are changing and that those same people with changing preferences are getting out of their cars and using different methods to get to where they want to go.  And if they locate in close proximity to where their destinations are (read: if they can live, work, and play in the same place), it makes leaving the car behind much much easier.

If you'd like to take the survey or read more about the Intelligent Cities project, you can do so here.

How Do I Get (My 10 Friends and I) There From Here?: Adams Morgan

Imagine you're at your apartment in Silver Spring, you've had a few bevs, and you need to get your 10 friends to Adams Morgan to meet more friends for some Halloween celebration.  You're in a state of de facto carlessness (you've had a few bevs) and your friends are getting anxious.  That was the situation I found myself in on Saturday, around... well I won't disclose the time.

We could have taken the Metro there... I guess.  But my friends had probably already had their fill of Metro for the day, having piled on once already to get to the Rally to Restore Sanity.  The problem with taking the Metro to Adams Morgan from my apartment is that it just. takes. so. long.  It's a ten minute walk to the station, then it's about a half hour ride on the Red Line from Silver Spring to the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan station, then it's another fifteen minute walk down Calvert Street to the bars.

Calling it "Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan" has always felt way too deceiving to me.  Sure, it's the "Adams Morgan" stop by virtue of the fact that there is not a closer station to that part of the city, but to get to what you're looking for you've got a .8 mile walk from when you get off the train across the bridge.  Dissimilarly, Foggy Bottom is not called "Foggy Bottom/GWU/Georgetown" even though there is no closer metro stop to Georgetown.  Consider these two maps:

The first map is from the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan metro on Connecticut Avenue near Woodley Road to TomTom, a favorite spot of ours since I lived with some friends in Kalorama during the summer of 2007, at 2333 18th St NW.  It's a .8 mile walk, according to Google Maps.  The second map is from the Foggy Bottom/GWU metro a block from Washington Circle Park to the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, one of the busiest there.  That's a .9 mile walk, according to Google Maps.  It goes to show how names of stations can be used as advertising mechanisms, depending on whether the destination wants to broadcast its proximity, in the case of AdMo, or keep it on the down low, in the case of Georgetown.

Given that I wasn't sure if my friends were up for another trek into the city via metro after the one we had had earlier in the day, we ended up taking Sun Cab, and using my "personal van cab driver" Sully.  At this point, Sully is more popular with me than any of my friends because he's been extremely late once or twice, but I still like to use him because all it takes is a text message to get in touch with him as opposed to calling tons of companies.  Plus, van cabs are hard to come by and I like to keep everyone together, and if he's really late he'll give us the ride for free.  We did indeed stuff all ten of my friends into the cab, with me riding shotgun and shooting the shit with Sully of course (no one likes to be the shotgun sitter in a cab) and we were able to stay together for that reason until other circumstances saw us separated not long after arrival.  For instance, did you know just as Adams Morgan lacks convenient Metro service, it also lacks AT&T service?  Well, at least it does on Halloween night.

Guest Post: Jon (The Boyfriend!)

Around the time my month of voluntary carlessness was coming to a close, I asked Jon to write a guest post on what his experience was like dating someone who had recently given up their car.

When Chad came to me a few months ago and told me about this crazy endeavor he wanted to embark on, my first reaction was … “are you crazy?”  I moved to the DC area a little over a year ago, and having a car was never an option.  I moved without a job, without any interviews, and living 100% on whatever savings I had mustered up (which fortunately did not dry up until I landed a new job).  Due to cost constraints (between the cost of parking, the cost of insurance, and the cost of gas) along with the logistical elements, having a car was never an option for me.  Going from having a car in high school and college, to being totally dependent on public transportation took some getting used to, but I quickly adapted.  However, living in the suburbs of DC is not as convenient for public transportation (especially for those of us not lucky enough to be able to enjoy the RideOn buses for free, ahem Chad!).  When I was completing my internship in the city my subway ride would take an hour each way (White Flint on the Red Line to Capitol South on Blue/Orange) and cost approximately $12 a day.  When I landed my first job the cost dropped to $8 a day and with my new job and new apartment it has now dropped to $5 a day or about $100 a month and takes 10 minutes each way.  While expensive, this still beats the cost of a car as $100 wouldn’t even cover my parking costs.  I pay my metro completely out of pocket though I take part in a program that takes money from my paycheck pre-tax that I can use for transportation, which saves approximately $20 a month!  While I do agree with Chad that the metro is expensive, and can be notoriously late and delayed (often so it seems for no reason) I think it is incredibly convenient if you both live and work in the city and still ends up being less expensive (depending on the distance you travel) than having a car.

Chad’s carless adventure was an adjustment.  I had gotten used to the ease he had in getting to my apartment or picking me up, and now it would take longer for each of us to travel to each other and would be another consideration in the various plans we made.  Given that I had not had the option of having a car, I couldn’t believe Chad was going to willingly give up the luxury of his.  But, when he told me his reasons, I really began to see why he was choosing this.  And his reasons, articulately described on his blog, are remarkable.  When Chad and I started dating, I was the one with no car.  I won’t deny that it was incredibly nice to be so close to someone with a car (I used to joke that I only kept dating Chad for his car, grocery shopping is so much easier when you don’t have to walk!).  Chad was great at adapting to my needs, going places within walking or metro distance, spending weekends locally instead of going anywhere far, etc.  But it was also a great experience for me to watch Chad undertake this adventure knowing full well from my own experience the logistical and practical considerations involved.  I am lucky enough to live just a 5 short stops from my office making my commute significantly easier than Chad’s trek from Silver Spring to Rockville daily.  I take one mode of transportation whereas Chad often took two or three.  I am a runner as well, but I am not nor have I ever been a morning runner, and it took a lot of heart and dedication (and grumbling from me when the alarm went off early) for Chad to wake up early each morning to bike or run part of the way to work.  I think what Chad ultimately proved with this undertaking, is that despite the logistical and practical challenges, despite the early mornings, the brutal weather (which he miraculously mostly escaped), and the added time, going carless is not an impossible task.  It takes adjustments, and patience, and some problem solving, but nothing that cannot be overcome.

Jon, since he works for a member of the DC City Council, requires a disclaimer similar to mine, so here it is.  Any views or experiences expressed here are his and not of the member he works for, the Council, or anyone else in DC City government.

What Worked and What Didn't, Part 2

Last week I wrapped up my one month of voluntary carlessness, and I wrote about what alternative means of getting around worked best, including combining biking with RideOn and running.  But like anything, where some parts worked really well, other parts did not:  they may have gotten me where I needed to go, but it either took too long, was too uncomfortable, or was too expensive.

What Didn't Work

The Q Line

Metro recently "improved" their Q line bus, which runs from Silver Spring to Shady Grove, and also stops at Wheaton and Rockville stations.  By "improving" the line, they added the Q4 and Q6 to the already existing Q2.  The Q2 makes the entire length of the trip; the Q4 starts at Silver Spring and turns around at Rockville; the Q6 starts at Shady Grove and turns around at Wheaton - sort of like Metro's Red Line trains that turn around early at Grosvenor station at peak times instead of going all the way to Shady Grove, so that more trains are serving the central parts of the line.  

While no factor alone was a "dealbreaker" for me taking this route, the perfect storm of discomfort, time, lack of exercise, and cost (read: it isn't free) put this method of getting to the office very low on my list of possibilities.  First, the bus is always packed:  even getting on at the stop at Georgia Avenue and Spring Street, the second stop on the Q4 line, meant that I had to go without a seat - that many people get on at its first stop at Wayne and Dixon.  (I was always assured a seat on the RideOn bus.)  The line makes SO many stops that the bus is stopping at practically every block leaving downtown Silver Spring to the intersection of Veirs Mill and Randolph Road.  It takes about 50-55 mintues to get from Silver Spring to Rockville, and that's without any exercise.  Combining a bike or run with a RideOn Route may take 20-30 minutes longer to make the same trip, but at least I get some cardio in.  Finally, since County employees are fortunate enough to enjoy free RideOn service but not Metro bus, taking the Q line costs $1.50 more than does taking a RideOn bus.

Metro

Especially when getting from Jon's apartment in Van Ness, Metro certainly had its advantages.  I could take the Red Line to Rockville and walk to my office in about 25 minutes, which allowed me to sleep in much longer than if I rode my bike or ran across the District line to where I could pick up a RideOn bus.  But the dealbreaker here, and for me it was quite a dealbreaker, was that this method cost $4.40 one way and close to nine dollars if I planned to go back the same way.  Way too expensive to use on a regular basis.

And for their part, I realize that Metro set a ridership record this past weekend for the Rally to Restore Sanity.  But I don't think that any of my visiting friends would categorize their metro experience as positive when we took it down to the Mall on Saturday.

When I reviewed the alternative means of getting around without a car, the common theme between by favorite methods was that they included exercise.  Conversely, the common theme between my least favorite means of getting around was that they did not include any exercise.  I always knew that the "Fitness Factor" would be an important part of this endeavor, but after a month now I see just how important it actually was to me.

Metro To Restore Sanity? Or Something Like That.

This weekend I had eleven visitors coming to stay for the Rally to Restore Sanity and for Halloween, and I found myself in two de-facto carless situations.  The first was due to the number of people I needed to get down to the rally and the second was due to everyone’s state of inebriation before celebrating All Hallow’s Eve in Adams Morgan.

The overcrowded metro and the chaos on the mall for the rally reminded me a lot of the last time I had such a full apartment:  President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.  I wanted to get an early start on Saturday morning to avoid crowds (doubt that would have been possible) and get a good spot for the rally, but after thoroughly enjoying the $15 sangria pitchers at La Tasca the night before, let’s just say my friends and I were dragging.

When we left for Inauguration in 2009, I made my friends (some of the same ones) get up at 5am so we could leave early.  While the Rally to Restore Sanity was awesome, I didn’t foresee the same historical urgency in such a wake up call.  By the time we left, it was 10:30.  What I saw at the Silver Spring station that I did not see the morning of the inauguration was a line backed up to Second Avenue to buy metro cards.  Had I had only a few friends coming, I might have went down and bought them the night before, but either way it hadn’t really occurred to me, so wait in the line we did.  By about 11:00 we made our way onto the platform but were not able to get on the first metro to Shady Grove that passed by because of the sheer number of people on the platform ahead of us.  We did make our way to the edge of the platform, positioning us well for the next train, and after a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of taking the next train to Glenmont to the end of the line and turning around, we decided to go for broke with the next Shady Grove train.  Our plan failed, and two of my friends were left behind on the other side of the closing doors with me shouting apologetically that they should look for us at the Massachusetts Avenue exit of Union Station.  After the train pulled away, I joked with my more assertive friends that had made their way on to the train that we had just witnessed an exercise in public transit Darwinism.

The train was packed.  Every time the train pulled up to a new station, the hopeful riders standing on the platform were greeted with self-righteous cries of “there’s no room for you” and “there are children on this train!” from riders who had stuffed their way on at the previous station.  I felt like I was on the Titanic, riding away on one of the remaining lifeboats.  Should I offer my space to a woman or child?  As if I actually could – I was stuffed in the very middle of the train with nary a bar to hang on to.  For some of my friends, it was their first time riding “the DC subway”, including a friend’s boyfriend visiting from the Netherlands, and for this display of public transpo chaos I profusely apologized.

The Grim Reaper holds a sign that says
"Unemployed - Thanks Obamacare"

We finally made our way to the rally, but given our tardiness, we could hardly find a good spot.  We watched a little bit of the rally, stood around and shot the shit with strangers nearby, and walked around and checked out the awesome signs that fellow sanity restorers had made.  (I had exhausted my creativity for the weekend on my Colonel Mustard costume and had made no signs.)

We were more prepared the second time we rode the metro that day.  At 4:30 when we were heading back, the trains were just as full, but I had suggested a different plan.  The first time, when we tried to all get on the train, we had formed what at best was an amorphous blob but was probably closer to a 1x8 line of people.  We had picked up Jon at that point, so I suggested that this time we form a 3x3 square of people, with the right and left flanks defending any jippers who may try to get in the doors ahead of us.  The plan worked, and we were the first nine people on the train!

I have to admit, I was a little embarrassed by the Metro experience my friends had this weekend.  Having grown up in suburban Pennsylvania and having gone to school in rural Pennsylvania, I want my friends from those places, as part of visiting me in my new home, to have a positive experience with public transportation that is quick, efficient, and effortless—not long, overcrowded, and miserable.  I understand that Metro set a ridership record this weekend, but I worry that for some of my friends, their impression of our public transportation system may be solidified.

Later this week, I’ll take a look at the other de facto carless experience my friends and I had this weekend, a trek to Adams Morgan…

What Worked and What Didn't, Part 1

I recently wrapped up the "one month" of going without my car.  Sometimes it was rewarding, sometimes it was frustrating, sometimes it was better, sometimes it was worse.  There were some strategies of getting where I needed to go that really worked for me that I will probably continue - and there were some I hope I never have to do again.

What Worked

A map of two different methods of getting from
Silver Spring to Rockville.  The green is my bike route
 when taking the Route 5 bus (in blue) and the purple is my
bike route when taking the Route 48 bus (in orange).



Combining Biking with RideOn

The most common route I took to get from my apartment to Silver Spring to my office in Rockville was the RideOn Route 5 bus to somewhere on Rockville Pike and then running or biking.  I think I rode the bus all the way to Twinbrook only once - once I figured out the bus's route I started getting off earlier and earlier.  A few times I got off the bus at White Flint station and biked the rest of the way, and eventually I started getting off at the intersection of Strathmore Avenue and Rockville Pike.  This minimized my time on the bus and allowed for some more exercise and added only a few minutes to the commute time.  I usually got on the 7:11 Route 5 bus, and got to the office around 8:15, so this method took about 65 minutes, or a little longer if I was running.  I took the Sligo Creek Trail a few times to get to Wheaton station and then took the Route 48 bus to Rockville, but this method was not as time effective.  For that reason I often swapped out the bike for my running shoes up Rockville Pike, but never on the Sligo Creek Trail, as that would have taken too long.

It is so easy to get your bike on a RideOn bus.  RideOn's website contains this description of how to do it, which I read over a few times before doing it myself for the first time.  There are also a few helpful videos on YouTube, which while not specific to RideOn, give you a good idea of how to do it as well.  I was nervous that people on the bus, and the driver, would quickly get irritated with me and my silly little bike.  But it only takes about 15 seconds - and it's so easy, I showed someone else how to do it on my first day.

Running

This probably wouldn't work for everyone, I admit.  One of my 2010 New Years resolutions was to run a race this year (a more tangible goal than "get in shape" or "exercise more").  After my first race was snowed out I ran an 8K in DC in March and then ran the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia in May.  (Next up is a Turkey Trot in my hometown of Harrisburg on Thanksgiving Day.)  So I had some running background before taking on this endeavor - these shoes had seen a lot of miles already.

Running was best when I didn't have to combine it with anything else - when Jon still lived at his apartment in North Bethesda.  It was a 3.5 mile run to the office that was easy, even considering it was up Rockville Pike.  But when Jon moved to Van Ness, my commute by foot got a lot longer, requiring the addition of either RideOn Route 46 or 47.  Sometimes I biked the running stretch of this route as well - changing things up all the time kept it interesting.

I've found that if I'm running with a purpose, I get a lot more out of it.  For instance, my runs from Jon's apartment in Van Ness to Medical Center station are always a lot better - and I'm able to run at a quicker pace - because I need to get to my destination in time to make the RideOn bus.  But if I've already completed the bus piece and am running afterwards, like after getting off the Route 5 bus at White Flint, my sense of urgency is not as high.  For this reason, the running route I prefer the most is leaving from Jon's:  north on Connecticut, west on Bradley Boulevard, and then north on Wisconsin.  It's a 4.5 mile stretch that I usually run in about 40 minutes.  Combined with RideOn Route 46, it takes about 80 minutes.

In both of these cases, I'm finding "what worked" had a common thread:  exercise.  These strategies of getting to work actually took longer than just taking a bus or just taking the metro, but I found I didn't mind it as much, even given the additional logistical considerations, as long as some cardio was included.  Even now that I have my car back, these methods of getting to work are ones I know I'll continue.  Later, I'll examine the methods I probably won't continue, the ones that just "didn't work." 

The Last Day

I just got home from work, having taken my tried and true route of biking from my office down Rockville Pike to Strathmore Avenue and picking up the RideOn Route 5 bus to Silver Spring.  And so ends my "official" month of carlessness.

To be honest, it doesn't really feel over.  I'm not breathing this huge sigh of relief that tomorrow I can sleep in and get in my car and drive to Rockville.  (OK - maybe I'm looking forward to it a little bit - but mostly because it will be something different to do.)  I do need to make a larger-than-normal trip to the grocery store in anticipation of having friends visit this weekend for Halloween / the Jon Stewart rally, and since large trips to the grocery store can be a challenge, I'm grateful to have my car back for that reason. 

But I'm taking the anti-climactic feeling of arriving home on the final day of my carless month as a good sign.  What I discovered is, that despite the many logistical considerations like showering at work, having extra clothes ready to go, and never having a morning to shave, getting to the office without a car is completely manageable.  And outside of the work commute, getting around by bike or even by running is a healthier, less stressful way to travel.  Not once in the last month did I ever have to think to myself "where's my car?" "is there enough time on the meter?" or "I'd park here, but how do I know I won't get a ticket for some ridiculous reason?"  And of course, despite its faults, there's always the metro.

So I think the reason I'm feeling surprised that this endeavor in carlessness is already over is a simple one:  it's not really over.  Sure, tomorrow my car insurance picks back up and I'm legally able to drive my car again - and I will, tomorrow.  But I like running way too much, I like being outside way too much, I like saving money way too much, for this to really be over.  Living carlessly is actually pretty awesome.

I'm left pondering a question that's been on my mind since I got back from The Cruisical:  what do I do with this blog?  I never expected to have so many friends message me out of the blue and say "I love reading about you giving up your car."  I never expected metions from other bloggers and I never expected any attention from the media.  I've just always wanted to start a blog but lacked a central focus for keeping one.  The fact is, I look forward to updating this johnpiece every night and my creative juices are still flowing. 

The last thing I want is for this blog to overstay its welcome or to get stale, like a TV show that used to be awesome but has gone on for so long it's begging for cancellation.  I want to go out on top a la Sex and the City, and so part of me feels like this post is the "American Girl In Paris: Part Deux" of One Month. One Guy. No Car.  But then again, The West Wing didn't exactly go out on top but Seasons 6 and 7 were still pretty stellar.  And so, at least for another week, One Month. One Guy. No Car. will be as alive as it ever was.  I think I've got some material and some more ideas left in the tank that readers will find informative and enjoyable. 

Tomorrow, I'll review how the first day back in the car felt after a 30-day hiatus...

Logistics: Shaving Schedule

Spaghetti and meatballs.  Peanut butter and jelly.  Red bull and vodka.  For me, if there are two things that go together, it's shaving and showering.  In fact, I usually shave while I'm in the shower using my fogless mirror because I'm metro like that.

For that reason, no routine of mine has been more thrown off by this month of carlessness than my shaving schedule.  I used to shave every Monday and Thursday, which I could get away with because my "beard" (I use this term loosely) grows in pretty slow and is barely noticeable on the first day of not shaving.  On the second day, usually Wednesdays or Saturdays, the stubble is noticeable but not bad.  The third day is always bad - but on a normal schedule the third day only falls on Sundays, which doesn't really matter.

But since I've started showering at work, it's gotten all kinds of messed up.  Since I try to get in and out of the bathroom as quickly as possible, I haven't even thought about shaving at work - the time factor aside, it still feels kind of gross and like something I would never want to do.  Nor would my co-workers want me to, I'm sure.  That leaves mornings that I shower at my apartment (read: not Jon's) as the only time I can shave.  But since one of my favorite ways to get to work is taking the RideOn Route 5 to White Flint and then running the rest of the way to Rockville, it's pointless to shower before leaving.

I haven't really found a solution.  I can't shave without showering.  That's a fact of my life.  But I don't like showering in order to shave when otherwise I wouldn't need to.  So basically I've had to accept that I'm not always going to be as clean-shaven as I might have been if I were getting up every morning, showering, shaving on Mondays and Thursdays, getting in my car, and driving to work.  (This was hardest to swallow last week when I met Congressman Henry Waxman having not shaved in three days.)

Not that I think my co-workers even notice.  I believe this to be the case because some that I've mentioned this to have said "oh, I hadn't noticed" or "oh, I thought it was a look."  So, I may be making a mountain out of a molehill on this one.

A Carless Weekend

I didn't have any plans for Friday night, but I was looking forward to spending a relaxing night with Jon.  It had been a busy week - dogsitting in Gaithersburg, fundraisers, etc, so a night of catching up on Glee sounded perfect.  (I admit - up until two weeks ago, I had never seen an episode of Glee in my life.  I can now say that I'm hooked, my favorite character is Rachel, and that I intend to watch the Rocky Horror episode next week even though I'm only half way through the first season.)

I took RideOn Route 47 from my office in Rockville to Bethesda.  Route 47 winds south past Montgomery Mall before hooking back east to the Bethesda Metro.  It was a great evening for a run, and after another unsanctioned pitstop at Starbucks, I took off for Van Ness.  I was pumped for the new running playlist that I had put together on the bus ride down to Bethesda.  I like routines (more on that in a later post) and I've got a running playlist of about 40 songs that I usually listen to in the exact same order.  In fact, on my normal run on the Sligo Creek Trail near my apartment in Silver Spring, I know exactly where I should be when a certain song comes on if I'm maintaining the pace I want.  (Of Montreal's "The Party's Crashing Us" comes on when I turn around at University Boulevard if I'm maintaining a 9:30/mile pace, for example.)  But it was time to change things up, so I rearranged and added some songs and put together the playlist to the right.


I was so zoned out that when I got to Chevy Chase Circle and crossed into the District, I exited the Circle too soon and took Western Avenue out instead of following Connecticut Avenue out.  I realized this... eventually... and checked the map on my phone to right my course back to Jon's apartment.  I ended up taking Reno Drive most of the way, which is a nice quiet street that I'll probably use in the future.  It's definitely less busy and I also found it to be a little less hilly than Connecticut.  It took me about 33 minutes to get down to Jon's.

Saturday morning I got picked up by Roger's campaign manager Heather to meet everyone in Potomac for the Potomac Day Parade.  It was a beautiful day, and the parade had a great turnout.  It marked one year since our first real campaign event, and I feel just as good now about being part of Roger's campaign as I did then.  I was grateful that Heather was able to pick me up and give me a ride back to Silver Spring - I could have ridden my bike but given that I had to get several things done that afternoon I was appreciative of the ride.

Saturday night Jon had box tickets to the Capitals game against the Atlanta Thrashers.  I was psyched, since I'd never been to an NHL game before.  It ended up being a great game:  Alexander Semin recorded his fourth career hat trick and the Capitals won 4-3 in overtime.  We took the metro both there and back - I forget that sometimes the metro actually is affordable.  Since for once I found myself actually riding the metro during "reduced fare" hours, it only cost $1.60 each way.

The coming week is my last week of carlessness.  Can't believe how quickly it's gone by.

"More Mooching" or "Tonight I Met Henry Waxman"

This morning I took the same RideOn Route 56 bus to get to the office from Gaithersburg that I took there the night before to dogsit.  I had a great time with Tango and Sapphire, as always.  The bus didn't take quite as long in the morning as it did in the afternoon - I got on at the stop at Quince Orchard Road and Orchard Ridge Road at 8:15 and arrived at the office at 8:56 - 41 minutes.  The good part is that the stop for the 56 bus is right in front of the door to my building, as opposed to the Route 46 stop which is at Maryland and Jefferson or the Q2/4 stop at the Rockville metro.  The commute didn't contain any exercise, which I don't like, but there wasn't much I could do since I left my bike and running shoes at the office.

A low-quality iPhone pic of
Congressman Waxman introduing Roger



I knew that after work I'd be supporting Roger at a fundraiser in Bethesda.  We've been campaigning for over a year now, so I've been to many fundraisers like this one.  But this one was different, thanks to two very high profile guests:  Congressmen Henry Waxman and Chris Van Hollen.  Roger, before getting elected to the County Council, had a long career on Capitol Hill, part of which was spent working for Rep. Waxman.  Our campaign was thrilled that during such a busy election season we were able to schedule both him and Chris Van Hollen, Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, to make an appearance at a fundraiser for us.  The only problem for me was that I'd most certainly have to mooch a ride there.  Thankfully, our Chief of Staff Cindy, who has come through for me before, was able to give me a lift again.  I hate mooching, but when a ride comes with a stop at Subway and some Rock Band 2, it could be worse.

Both Congressmen had nice things to say about Roger, and everyone in the room, after sharing some laughs, agreed on the magnitude of this upcoming election, and the importance of maintaining a Democratic majority in the House and Senate.  After they were done, I grew some balls and introduced myself to the Chairman.  My conversation with the Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee went something like this:

CB:  Mr. Chairman, I'm Chad Bolt, I work in Roger's Council office.

HW:  Nice to meet you, Chad.

CB:  You know, I'm actually reading The Waxman Report right now.

HW:  (laughs) Oh yeah?  You like it?

CB:  Yeah I think it's great!

HW:  Well good.  Nice to see you.

And that was that.  (Read: IT WAS AWESOME.)  Afterward, I was able to get a ride home to Silver Spring from another good friend, Miti.  Despite having to mooch twice, it was a great night.  I just realized that this month of carlessness is down to just five days...

A New Destination: Gaithersburg

Tonight I'm dogsitting for a friend who lives in Gaithersburg off of Quince Orchard Road near the Kentlands.  This is the fourth time I've stayed with Sapphire and Tango, but the first time I've needed to get here without a car. 

Her house in Gaithersburg has always seemed so far away to me, despite the fact that it takes about the same or less time to get here than home to Silver Spring when driving.  Maybe it's because instead of heading east-west I'm heading north, in the opposite direction of DC, my starting point for judging whether things are "far away" or not.  It also reminds me a lot of Harrisburg, where I grew up: major four or six lane roads dissecting wide open space, seemingly needing a car to get from any Point A to any Point B. 

After taking RideOn Route 5 this morning from Silver Spring to White Flint and then riding my bike the rest of the way to Rockville, I had riding my bike as an option to make the trek up here after work.  But after glancing at the RideOn Route 56 schedule, I noticed that there were stops both right in front of my office and at the entrance to my friend's neighborhood, so I decided to go with that.  (I always wondered which stop it was that had people standing right in front of the entrance to my parking garage: turns out it's Routes 56 and 47.)

I got on the bus at 5:11, and rocked some Blueprint 3 in the earbuds up Shady Grove Road and then onto Darnestown Road.  I finally got off at the stop at the intersection of the too-similarly-named Quince Orchard Road and Orchard Ridge Road shortly before 6.  It was about a 15 minute walk to my friend's house from there.  While I was walking I was struck by something that I'm not normally conscious of:  at a little over an hour, this trip took a really long time. 

Normally, in getting from either Silver Spring or Van Ness to Rockville, I incorporate a 2-4 mile run or bike ride into the commute.  Between the biking or running and the RideOn bus, it takes about 80 minutes to make the trip, but it doesn't seem that long because I'm not only commuting but exercising as well.  But this trip, simply a RideOn bus, took about 50 minutes plus a 15 minute walk from the closest bus stop to my friend's house.  What I've figured out over the last three weeks is that I'm willing to accept a longer commute, as long as it means I've gotten some cardio in as well.  Not only that, but that a longer commute doesn't even feel "that long" if I've gotten some cardio in.  But anytime a bus ride alone pushes an hour, like this Route 56 or the Q2 Metro bus from Silver Spring to Rockville, that's where I have to draw the line between tolerable and intolerable.

Back In The Swing of Things... For Real This Time

Yesterday I wrote that taking the metro to work from Jon's apartment in Van Ness and then taking it back cost over nine dollars.  While I was grateful for the extra time to sleep in that taking the metro afforded me in the morning, that kind of cost just isn't sustainable.

Today's running route

So this morning I woke up at 6:20 (OK, maybe 6:30 - as Jon describes it, I have a "fluid relationship with time"), brushed my teeth, and ran from Jon's apartment near the Van Ness metro to the Medical Center metro in Bethesda, about four and a half miles.  I headed north on Connecticut Avenue and crossed into Maryland at Chevy Chase Circle, then cut over to Wisconsin Avenue on Bradley Boulevard.  It was a great morning for a run: 55º, and I badly needed some exercise after a week of excess on The Cruisical.  The crisp air was like fuel for the engine of my legs, and I got to the RideOn Route 46 stop at Medical Center in about 43 minutes - and that included a bathroom stop at a Starbucks in DC.  (On this particular morning, I was not a paying customer using the restroom.  However, there have been plenty of paying customer mornings and afternoons for me lately, so my Starbucks conscious is clear.  Oh, and did you know they're offering a bunch of free shit over Wi-Fi now?) 

After just missing the 7:11 46 bus, I had to wait a boring 25 minutes for the 7:36. But I knew my co-worker Beth rode that 46, so at least I would have a bus buddy. I got to work feeling great about the fact that two days after returning from the Bahamas I ran 4+ miles at a sub-10 minute/mile pace.  In fact, I was in a good mood all day.

After work, during another abysmal offensive effort from the Phillies in support of Cole Hamels, I rode my bike from my office in Rockville the 3.4 miles down to the White Flint metro and picked up RideOn Route 5 to Silver Spring.  The Route 5 originates at Twinbrook and then winds through Garrett Park before ending up at Second Avenue and Colesville Road, about five blocks from my apartment.  It was the first time since I started riding my bike to work three weeks ago that there was already one bike on the rack when the bus pulled up.  I got home around 6:20 - and would have gotten home sooner, had I not narrowly missed the 5:33 5 bus.  But it's not like the Phillies had even shown up to play today anyway, so there wouldn't have been much to watch.

Back In The Swing of Things... Kind Of

Our group at Señor Frogs in Nassau, Bahamas. The guy on the right in the
Penn State shirt is my buddy Ben, who is owed his own shout out for
giving me a ride to Baltimore the day before the cruise. Thanks big guy!

I've returned from sailing the high seas and a week of fun in the sun.  Twelve friends and I just got back from a fantastic voyage to the Bahamas - and I have to say, I think getting back into the swing of things here might be a bit of an adjustment.  On the cruise (or "The Cruisical" as my friends and I referred to it) everything is prepared for you: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, drinks, your room, etc.  "We need mixers for our Top Ten at 10:00 pregame tonight?"  OK fine, we'll have room service bring them.  "It's midnight and we feel like stuffing our face with pizza?" OK fine, we'll go to the Mermaid Grille.  It's not exactly "to get to work today, first I'll wake up mad early then I'll run three miles and then take a RideOn bus the rest of the way where I'll shower in a tiny little shower."

So after staying at Jon's in Van Ness last night, the prospect of a planes-trains-and-automobiles commute to work was a little too much after a week of pure laziness relaxtion on The Cruisical.  Plus, I had to restock my supply of clothes at work a bit, so I needed to carry three or four shirts and two pairs of pants with me - but I can't lie, even if I had not needed to carry so much stuff I probably still would have taken the metro.

It cost me a pretty penny, to be sure.  $4.40 to get from Van Ness to Rockville?  That is more than entire weeks' worth of commutes have cost me in the past when biking and/or taking RideOn.  But, it did get me to work in twenty-five minutes, meaning I got to sleep in later.  It was expensive rest.  I also took the metro after work - this time to Metro Center to meet Jon and some of his friends for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the city, Rosa Mexicano.  That trip cost $5.20, meaning my total for the day was over nine dollars.  Nine dollars?  How can anyone afford that?  Now I remember why I've been avoiding use of the metro during this endeavor.

But if anything can break me of my Cruisical habits of doing everything the easy way in my fat clothes, it's definitely the overpriced metro.

Guest Post: Kristen, Pittsburgh

The following post was written by my friend Kristen, a friend from high school who attended the University of Pittsburgh for both her Bachelors and Masters degrees.  She lives and works in Pittsburgh today.

Let me start by saying that I love my car. She's a 1998 Volvo XC70 station wagon, silver with black trim, busted-up leather interior, 250,000 miles, all wheel drive, runs like a tank. Her name is Angelina. If you're going to battle the Snowpocalypse in Pittsburgh, this is the car you want to be doing it in. Unfortunately, Angelina did not enter my life until February, after the majority of the snow had disappeared. Until that point I had been living in Pittsburgh for four years completely carless.

Carlessness is not such a big deal when you're a student at one of the several universities in the Oakland area.  There is plenty of cheap (albeit terrible) housing within walking distance of campus, and perhaps most importantly, one's student ID doubles as a magical pass to free public transportation anywhere in the county -- that includes buses, light rail, and even our signature funicular.  For the average student living in Oakland, a car is an unnecessary hassle and expense -- parking is extrememly limited and always pricey, and bus lines run to pretty much anywhere one might wish to get.  Not always frequently and rarely on time, but destinations like the North Shore, the Southside, the East End, and suburbs up to 20 miles out are theoretically only a bus ride away.

My own beloved roach-infested basement apartment was just under a mile from campus, a trip I made on foot once or twice a day.  The 71A, 54C, and EBO would also get me there but hardly seemed worth waiting for except in exceptionally bad weather.  A half mile's walk would get me to a dozen downtown-bound bus lines (three miles away), and a block past that I could catch them all running outbound toward my then-boyfriend's apartment in Squirrel Hill, about two and a half miles away.  Those three destinations were the only places I needed to get to on a consistent basis, and were all readily accessible without so much as consulting a bus schedule.  The biggest day-to-day logistical challenge of carlessness was the grocery problem.  The nearest grocery store was exactly a mile away -- not a big deal to walk to, but less manageable on the return trip with a week's worth of groceries in tow.  (It is astounding how shopping bags seem to double in weight from the checkout line to one's front door.)  Luckily both the 71A and the 81B covered the entire route; the only downside was the frequency, or lack thereof.  Major shopping trips were usually a weekend occurrence, and on a Sunday a bus that normally runs every fifteen minutes might run once an hour.  I became well-acquainted with the frustration of waiting for a half hour or more in single-digit temperatures at a stop with no bus shelter.  Carrying a schedule was an option, but a bus could easily be twenty minutes late, especially in snow.  It was a great relief when my roommate acquired her sister's hand-me-down Saturn SC1 coupe, Sylvia, a tiny two-door affair that was perfect for grocery runs and didn't get used for much else.

Circumstances changed when my roommate and I moved to a lovely house on a hill just outside the city limits, now six miles distant from Oakland and almost eight from downtown.  Transportation suddenly required planning.  Bus schedules became a permanent fixture on the coffee table.  Luckily our new location was within walking distance of the East Busway, a secret nine-mile buses-only express highway that cuts through the east of the city from downtown to Swissvale.  (There is a West Busway but nothing west of the Point is Pittsburgh anymore in my admittedly biased opinion.)  My daily commute went something like this:  a three-quarters mile walk down to the busway station (10-15 minutes), then catch the EBO to Oakland or the EBA downtown (20-25 minutes).  Coming home from class after 9:00, the EBO had ceased running, so it was the long way around on the 61A, a forty-five minute ride that dropped me off at the base of my hill.

If you've never been to Pittsburgh, you need to understand about the hills.  The whole city is made of hills.  Big ones.  Everywhere.  The northern suburbs are called the North Hills, the southern suburbs are called the South Hills.  The first time you see the Southside Slopes you will wonder how on earth those houses are not just sliding right off the hillside into the Monongahela River below.  What this means is that maps of the area are deceptive.  Two roads may be parallel on paper but getting from one to the other may involve scaling a sheer cliff face (or taking an incline before the city tore them all down).  It also means that a half mile walk from a bus stop to one's house may mean hiking at a forty-five degree angle the whole way up.  After a thirteen-hour day of work and class, that hill starts to look like a mountain.

That brings me to Angelina.  After I finished my grad program, it seemed like it was time to get a grown-up job.  Since there was no guarantee that employment would be located somwhere accessible (read: less than an hour, no more than one transfer), the job search more or less necessitated a vehicle.  My carlessness had always been a financial issue, never a voluntary choice, but I appreciated a lot of aspects of it -- fewer expenses, more exercise, greener lifestyle.  I survived without a car long enough to know that I could if I had to.  But I didn't want to.  I was tired of having to plan every outing, of waiting for buses, of every trip taking twice as long as it would in a car.  I was tired of climbing the hill.

These days I drive a few minutes to my closest Park-N-Ride, where the lot is usually full by the time I get there and I have to chance street parking.  I then take the EBA in (still milking that free bus pass!), and walk a half mile across town to my building.  Total trip time 40-50 minutes.  In the evenings I often stop at the grocery store on the way home, since I can pick up a few things without planning a whole trip in advance.  I can even spontaneously hop on the turnpike to visit my family 200 miles east, without being tied to an Amtrak or Greyhound schedule.  I am profoundly grateful to have my car and all the convenience that comes with it.  I would love to see more cities (and the whole country, really) move toward a less automobile-dependent model, but in the meantime I'm afraid they're pretty much necessary.  Viva the Volvo.

Guest Post: Gracie, New Orleans

The following post was written by my friend Gracie, a fellow Summer of 2007 Democratic National Committee canvasser who graduated from Tulane University in 2009.

New Orleans was built by French people in the 18^th century. If you’re familiar with DC, you know what that means. Roads don’t always lead where you would expect, streets are too narrow for two cars to pass each other, and if you don’t already know how to get where you’re going, you’re lost. It’s a city built for walking and horses, not for SUVs. Biking, though, is ideal.

I reveled in New Orleans for four years on my baby blue Trek and loved every minute of it. It’s really a bike-friendly city: the ground is pancake-flat, it’s always warm, and so many people are on bicycles that drivers know how to be considerate. Once you learn how to dodge the potholes and ride through floods, you’re better off on a bike than anything else.

My bike was particularly useful when I first moved down about a year after Katrina. The streetcar wasn’t running yet (it’s still running on its own charmingly unpredictable schedule), and anyone with a car had to plan well in advance where they were going to find an open gas station. New to the city, I went exploring in different neighborhoods around Uptown, New Orleans East, and Mid-City. I got to know my new home and feel the chilly silence of empty neighborhoods. I biked up and down abandoned streets with my pals, all of us singing Yellow Submarine as loud as we could.

As the city came back, bikes became more and more popular. People in New Orleans are fully aware that they’re at risk total annihilation from global warming, so New Orleans is coming back green. Everybody bikes now. Families take weekend rides in matching helmets, hipsters ride vintage road bikes at the bottom of Magazine Street, and teenage boys in the Hollygrove (where Lil’ Wayne’s from) ride down the middle of the street with no hands. There’s always a party going on somewhere in New Orleans, and the tiny streets make parking iffy at best. For Mardi Gras, when the streets are crammed before and after every parade and you can’t find a spot within five miles of the French Quarter, a bike is the only way around. I once watched a parade, and then cut through streets around it so I could watch it again and still made it home two hours before my friends who took their car.

New Orleans is and always will be a town that doesn’t know how to hurry; it’s not called the Big Easy for nothing. Biking’s not fast, but it’s just the right speed for Nola. Pedaling slowly and feeling the breeze coming off the river, it’s hard to imagine wanting to be anywhere else in the world.

Guest Post: John, Budapest

The following post is written by my friend John, a friend from high school who since graduating from the University of Pittsburgh has lived without a car in Budapest, Hungary.

The Setup

I’m an American living abroad. I’ve spent the last two years in Budapest, which is the capital of Hungary and one of the great cities of Central Europe. It has an urban population of about 2 million people (roughly the size of Philadelphia). Certainly, legend or conventional thinking has it that living without a car in Europe is much easier than in the US. To a large extent, that is true. I’ve managed to have a great life here for the last 2 years and have never owned a car.

One of the prime reasons that living without a car is so easy in Budapest is that the city is very compact by American standards. Since the city and the public transit do not have to service endless sprawling suburbs like in the U.S., the lines are not overstretched. There are suburban trains that connect to villages outside of the city limits, but most people live within the city where the wealth, jobs and culture are concentrated.

Budapest has 3 metro lines. Trains run every 3-5 minutes from around 5 am until midnight. It also has a very extensive tram and bus service that gives the city nearly 100% coverage for public transportation. Night buses service the whole city until the metro lines start back up in the morning. The city can do this for a moderately cheap amount because of its dense and centrally located population, different than metropolitan areas in the US.

Further, owning a car in Hungary is a very big expense. There is a very high tax on car purchases and gas prices are stratospheric (currently over $1.50 a liter or roughly $6.00 a gallon). This persuades more people to consider alternative transportation. As it’s a middle class transport system here, the quality of the trains is generally pretty good. It is easy to walk around the city and since your job may be only a few blocks from your house, it is possible to bike there without working up too much of a sweat. If you do need to get across town, just jump on a tram or a metro and you’ll be there in minutes.

Walk for your lives!!

Living without a car here has given me a “new normal” in getting from place to place. My parents just visited from the US. They both live and work in suburban America. They both work over half an hour by car away from our house. They don’t cycle, they don’t walk. They found it difficult to walk from place to place here, even when the distance was not very great. We also walked more slowly, so our short trips took longer to reach than if I was walking alone. Since I don't have a car, I do take advantage of walking. It’s healthier, it’s eco-friendly, I enjoy it. I’m in much better shape because I do walk and therefore walking is quick and easy. It’s a great virtuous cycle.

Once you start walking here, you realize just how close the things are that you need. Since there are small grocery stores all over, you don’t need a car to bring all of your groceries back in one trip. Need butter? Need milk? There’s a cheap store on the corner that sells 99% of the things you need. Need a chair or desk or bed? There is an Ikea at either end of the red line metro. You can get there and back in half an hour.

Reaching a Critical Mass

Bikes are still the Achilles’ heel in Budapest’s eco-grid. Bike lanes, “Bringa Ut” in Hungarian, do not service the entire city. Crossing the Danube by bridge can be treacherous on a bike. Those places that do have bike lanes, such as Andrassy Ut, Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Ut, and Heroes’ Square, are not places that are generally of interest to the biking community. Andrassy Ut is the upper class shopping street where you can buy Dolce & Gabana, Burberry, or Calvin Klein. Most tight jeaned and tanktopped hipsters don’t go anywhere near these places and the bike lanes there go unused. The hipster havens on Kiraly utca have no such bike service.

The two most efficient bike lanes are the two bikes lanes which face each other on either side of the Danube River. In the mornings and the evenings, these are real bike-commuter transit lanes that make getting to work easier. Otherwise, bike traffic is directed onto roadways or sidewalks. This makes bike riding much more dangerous as neither cars nor pedestrians in Budapest have much experience in negotiating around town with large numbers of bikes traveling with them.

Save a Life, Drink and… Take the Bus

Finally, Budapest is a drinker’s city. From wine to beer to Hungarian Palinka (similar to schnopps), Hungarians like to have a few before going home. However, Hungary has a very strict drunk driving regulation. A person can only have 0.000000000% alcohol in their system. That’s right… none at all. I’m not sure you can even look at alcohol and drive legally.

The public transportation system can ferry you anywhere, all night, and it is exceedingly cheap. Most young people when they go out leave the cars at home and bus into or around the city. Since the city is practically overflowing with bars, you can generally find a good one right around the corner from metro or bus stop down town.

Since the Hungarians take their drinking very seriously and don’t like to see someone missing out on the fun, it’s hard not to accept a drink from them in the bar. However, between the metro and the night buses, no one has to volunteer to be the designated driver and no one has to worry about drunk drivers. It helps make the city safer, cleaner, and helps everyone to have a good time.

All around, the city’s integrated transportation system has made it very easy to cast off the car and get around the city by other means. It definitely makes day to day life more enjoyable and I think that going back would be hard. I still remember traffic jams, car insurance, and trying to find a parking spot. For me it's been great to live somewhere that I can easily have a life without a car. Now, if only I could find some way to make air travel more eco-friendly...

Thanks for reading!

Guest Post: Jeff, New York City

The following post is written by my friend Jeff, a friend from high school who graduated from The Pennsylvania State University and moved to New York City in August 2009.  All opinions are his.

Chad and I have been friends since high school. We have many things in common, one of which being our love of public transport. When Chad first informed me about his quest to live without a car for a month (and write a blog about it), I was all about it.  When he asked me to write a guest post, I was honored.

By way of background, I'm currently in my second year living in New York City. Unlike Chad, I didn't have a choice in the matter of getting rid of my car.  I live in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan where it is difficult to rent a parking spot for less than $300 a month.  The truth is, I work 1.2 miles from where I live and I eat/drink within 2 miles of where I live. In short, I simply don't need a car.

It was tough to think of what I wanted to discuss in my guest post, but having spent time living in DC without a car, I thought I'd make sense to compare the two transit systems. I am an accountant by trade, so I thought taking a look at the two systems from an economic perspective would make sense. The topic of my post is the following: WMATA is not set up to encourage people to get rid of their cars.

Considering its insolvency and soon to be third fare hike in three years, I clearly don't believe the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is the best run system in the country.  That doesn't mean that WMATA couldn't learn a few things from the MTA.  So if anybody from WMATA is reading, I'd encourage you to Bolt to NYC, take a ride on the 6 train to 28th Street, and walk to my apartment. I'd love to discuss a few items with you.

1.  Charging per use discourages ridership.

My guess is the majority of the readers here are from the DC metro area, so let me take a few moments to explain how things work here in the Big Apple. I currently pay $89 a month for a 30 day unlimited Metrocard. That allows me to use any of the subways or local buses as many times as I'd like at any time of the day (none of that peak or off-peak garbage). I can't conclude on the entire population of NYC, but I'm comfortable saying that the majority of my friends have the same type of card.

Once I pay for my monthly card, the marginal cost per ride is zero. For me, that means I have to really need to get somewhere in a hurry to drop $15 or $20 on a cab. Its no lie that waiting for a train or bus is less convenient than taking cabs, but because the difference in price between a cab and the subway is so extreme, I'm willing to deal.

Compare this to DC where you pay for every trip.  If you're going somewhere by yourself, you're probably willing to pay $3 and wait for the Metro for a few minutes rather than pay for the cab.  What happens if you check your iPhone and see the next train will be 30 minutes?  What if there are 4 of you?  In that case, the Metro just doesn't make sense (spend $12 for the metro or $15 for a cab).

In NYC, running a few errands isn't a big deal. If I want to do some shopping in SoHo, then get some Shake Shack on the Upper East Side, then take the cross town bus to the Upper West Side to visit my friends, and then head down to the West Village for dinner, it costs me nothing more.

Compare this to DC where you may want to take the Metro to Foggy Bottom to shop in Georgetown, then get some Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street, then take the bus to Adams Morgan to visit a friend, then take the Metro to DuPont for dinner. You may have just spent $12 on transportation. At that point, it probably would have been easier just hop in the car and pay for the gas and parking meters.  Worse, it may discourage you from going to these places and enjoying the city in which you live because its just so expensive to get around!

2.  Zone pricing discourages ridership. 

When you think about it initially, charging more to go further may make sense.  On the flip side, it doesn't encourage those who have alternative forms of transportation to chose to ride the train or it almost certainly squeezes additional cash out of those who don't have alternate means of transport (by choice or otherwise).

The further you live from Midtown Manhattan, the less the rents usually are.  The average income in these further areas are likely less (i.e., Harlem, the Bronx, Bed-Stuy). In NYC, whether you live out in East New York (45 minutes to Midtown) or the Upper East Side (10 minutes to Midtown, you pay the same (unlimited monthly or $2.25 pay per ride).

Let's think about DC.  While living in the District certainly isn't cheap, living in Clarendon or Bethesda isn't either.  That may indicate the people in these areas are wealthier and have other options to get around.  It costs more for transport from these areas, so the Metro simply isn't competitive from a cost perspective considering the large fixed cost of vehicle ownership.

Regardless of the economics, living without a car is simply a healthier, less expensive, and greener lifestyle.  Those of us who have been living without personal vehicles recognize the challenges that it entails (e.g., carrying home groceries or getting caught in the rain walking from the subway).  Some people say that waiting for the bus is inconvenient, but I say that waiting on an oil change or changing a flat tire is much more inconvenient.

Really, who wouldn't rather be chauffeured everywhere for $89 a month?