Me and PT

I have always had a love/hate relationship with PT (public transportation) As a child, I hated it because it took such a long time to get home - hence less outside play time for me since I had to be in the house by the time the street lights came on. I also loved it, because we had an old thunderbird which was in the repair shop more often than it ran. Without it, we would have not had the means to get from point A to B. Moving to Jacksonville suspended any need for public transportation because the city is so large, public transportation is just impractical. Once I moved to the DC metro area, I still was resistant to public transportation unless necesarry. I hated the track between Gallery Place and Metro Center where during rush hour we were all smushed like sardines in a can. I hated the long train ride home to Branch Avenue when (I hate to say it - the amount of melanin increased) and the noise level increased to deafening volumes. I became used to my car and preferred it above any thing else - up until about 2 months ago when I started working in the city.

I lived in the suburbs at the time and really didn't have any other alternative. When I was informed by my rental office that my rent was increasing by $100, I knew I had no other alternative but to move closer. I wouldn't be able to afford the increase along with the costs of commuting. Gas back then was about $2.19 or so and parking was $5.50 a day (which is really cheap for the city). Considering I had to fill up about 1.5 times - 2 times a week, the outgo added up substantially.

Fortunately I found a place in the city with free parking - garage parking at that. I also found out that the city bus drops off about 2 blocks from my office - which indeed is a blessing.

My long commutes and pocket drain ignited a love affair with public transportation once again. Even with the cast of characters, and there are some pretty intersting ones - like the lady who sings loudly on the bus; the guy who apparently never heard of headphones and decided to share his R Kelly video with the entire bus - he seemed to be under the impression that just because he paid for his DVD player, that he had a right to play it as loud as he wanted; or even better the guy who pants were so low his bare behind was sitting on the seat. There is also the lack of PT manners - like people who bumrush the bus as soon as the door is opened instead of waiting for the onboard passengers to exit first or the people who assume the people sitting next to them are hearing impaired and talk so loudly that everyone on the bus knows all the sordid details of their life.

But even all that hasn't soured me on the positives of PT. With the soaring gas prices which have inexplicably hit $3.20 almost overnight, driving seems even less desirable. I know we have been told that the price hike is due to hurricane Katrina, but I am of the opinion that this is yet another way the oil corporations are taking advantage of disasters. Yes, I know we depend on the Gulf for oil, but other countries have offered assistance to the oil companies, but it doesn't seem to trickle down to the American consumer.

I am speculating that as the prices continue to hike, PT costs may increase and service may be decreased, but for now I will keep my Smartcard handy.