#triangle transit

[fortifyncdot-blog-blog]

Fortify Friday: Calling Johnston County

If you live in Johnston County and commute to the RTP, then this post is for you! In my last Fortify Friday update, I wrote about several new and best kept "secrets" to avoiding Fortify traffic for...

[ilovecommuting]

MONTHLY GAS EXPENDITURES SEPT-OCT

Below you might notice a change from my typical bar graph. In September I spent $40 for $50 worth of bus fare passes as motivation to start taking the bus to work more frequently. (One-way bus fare is $2.50, so theoretically I paid for 16 round-trips and got 4 free.)

Out of curiosity to see how much gas money I save as a result of riding the bus, I have accounted for my bus fare, represented by the highlighter yellow shading.

As of today (well into November), I still have about $15 of that fare that remains unused, so the difference is not quite drastic yet. I guess I need to be more diligent about taking the bus in order to see the impact on my wallet.

In the month of September, I spent $135.08 on gas & fuel, and $40 on bus fare ($175.08) In the month of October, I spent $171 even on gas & fuel. (Total: $306.08)

With that money, I could have bought:

-A phone charger and a new iPod FM adapter for the car ($80 some dollars!!!)

-A new pair of glasses and a year's worth of contact lenses

-A wedding gift for my dear friends Danielle and Mike who were married on October 15th (Congratulations! And you will receive your belated wedding gift soon....promise!)

[ilovecommuting]

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17

Day two of riding the bus and I already have a dramatic story to tell!

[Scene] The bus approaches the second stop on the route. There are currently less than 7 passengers sitting quietly, some drinking coffee, some reading the newspaper, others staring absently through the window .  It is approximately 8:10am.

[Enter] 3 or 4 more passengers, who quickly pay their fare and take their seats quietly.

[Enter] A grumpy guy in his mid/late 20's.  After securing his expensive-looking hipster bike to the front rack on the bus, he walks on, holding a fare card and a few one dollar bills.

He puts his fare card into the machine and it's promptly rejected.  The bus driver tells him that he cannot use that card, as clearly the machine will not accept it, for whatever reason.

Disclaimer: Granted, I had a front row seat during the show that I'm about to describe in full detail, but I'm pretty sure every other passenger on the bus could see and hear every word that came next--whether they wanted to or not.

Before the driver had even completed this sentence explaining to the passenger that his fare card was no good, Grumpy snapped at him.

You ever been on a date with someone who out of nowhere turns out to be one of those people who is suddenly and irrationally rude to the waitstaff at the restaurant, making you feel utterly uncomfortable and wish that you were on a date with the cute bartender instead of the douche yelling at him? That's what this situation was kind of like, except that I was not remotely physically attracted to either Grumpy or the bus driver, and there was no bread basket to distract me from the awkwardness.

Within 5 minutes, I learned that Grumpy had $1.50 left on his fare card (a one-way express trip is $2.50), which has consistently been rejected multiple times on Triangle Transit buses.  I also learned that he came prepared with cash to pay for his fare one-way but he was totally saving it for something later that afternoon and now he was totally screwed and was going to be stranded in Durham.  I also learned his real name (we'll still call him Grumpy to protect his identity), his phone number, and his e-mail address.

I learned all of this about Grumpy without actually speaking a word to him or making eye contact.

After he finished chewing out the bus driver, he took a seat next to me, and proceeded to call the Triangle Transit customer service line to bitch about his terrible inhumane experience and in particular, how violated he felt to be treated so disrespectfully by the bus driver. All of this conversation was happening at a decibel that allowed the entire bus to listen in on every word he said.

Granted it was 8am and I dont know whats going on in his personal life, but come on.

Jerk!

In other news, I ate two breakfasts today.

[ilovecommuting]

TUESDAY AUGUST 16

Well everyone, it finally happened. I took the bus to work.

I live about 3 blocks from the bus stop, which equates to a ten minute walk at a leisurely, comfortable pace.

This is awesome for two reasons: 1.  It's a manageable amount of exercise.  Not quite hard enough to break a sweat or raise my heart rate, but enough walking to justify my lifestyle choices of not having a gym membership and eating an obscene amount of Chick-fil-A. 2. I get to see Downtown Raleigh in the daylight.  I see plenty of the Raleigh nightlife scene, but I rarely get to experience the city when the sun is out.

The bus departs at exactly 8:05am. Which means I need to be out of my door by 7:52ish.  This schedule demands a bit more discipline when it comes to waking up when my alarm actually goes off at 6am, rather than my customary 5-7 snooze button naps.

So let me tell you about my first day on the bus!

I was really excited about having the opportunity to catch up on some reading. I managed to consume about 8 pages of the book I've been trying to finish for a month, and then I started to feel a little nauseous (partially due to motion sickness and partially due to the graphic and disturbing storyline in my novel.)  I was always one of those kids who tried to read in the backseat of mom's car during a road trip, but inevitably always felt like crap while doing so.

I decided to use the remainder of the ride to sit back and close my eyes and hopefully let the motion sickness subside. It was nice not having to worry about paying attention to the road, but I definitely lost all alertness and energy and drifted back to sleep momentarily.  I hate feeling drowsy after I've already woken myself up and had 1.5 cups of coffee, but there was little I could do to combat that this morning.

(And on a random side note, despite the fact that it was 8:30 in the morning, I couldn't help but have intense thoughts about lasagna during my mini-nap... weird.)

As much as a I don't like drinking coffee after I brush my teeth in the AM, I think I'm going to have to start bringing a mug with me on the bus.  But on the bright side, I do own this particular travel mug that doesn't get used nearly enough:

Total travel time from door to door: about an hour and ten minutes.

It takes more time than hopping in my car and driving straight to Durham, but I think I'll have a lot less to complain about and a lot more gas money in my wallet.

[evehasplans]

I read the post where you were talking about transit in Raleigh. Have you tried the Chapel Hill transit? Is it any better? I'm a little concerned, since I'll be moving there next summer for a job. Should I expect to be paying a lot for parking in either Raleigh or Chapel Hill?Sorry for the artillery of questions!

As far as I can tell, there's no free downtown weekday parking in Raleigh at all. I'm really not sure about Chapel Hill's parking but it's my impression there's little free downtown weekday parking to be had there either.The Triangle Area's public transit is mostly bad in its ability to get from point A to point B if that particular trip isn't an especially popular one. For instance, I could get to RTP pretty easily any week day if I went during certain hours and didn't mind waiting until at least 4PM to come back.If you know the addresses already, I'd try the trip planner on [Triangle Transit](http://triangletransit.org/) for days/times when you think you'll be using transit. You can save a lot of money by buying a 30 day pass and some companies will subsidize public transit fees for their employees.P.S. The bus drivers are surly. I think that's standard but I've only used public transit in the Triangle area and Baltimore.