The MARTA DIARIES, day 1

Once upon a time, I had a car.

 Those days are gone.

Sadly, I totaled my car the week before critique week (the other party was a graphic designer who knew people at Portfolio Center; what are the odds of that?).  After two weeks in San Francisco over spring break , I’m back and trying to figure out how to make my life work without wheels. 

San Franscisco is an amazing city in many ways, and one of the best is its public transportation.  Their trains are fast, frequent, and they go everywhere.   I loved how after just a couple of days there i was able to figure exactly what trains i needed to go anywhere i felt like in the city.  Not to mention, riding the train means getting to spend quality time with the long-distance bf instead of concentrating on driving : )

 Here in Atlanta, getting a ride on MARTA feels like trying to get a ride from your older brother in high school:  you have to wait around ages on him to be ready, and then he’ll never take you quite where you need to go but instead just drops you off wherever is good for him. 

With all the cons of public transportation in Atlanta, the current state of my finances (I have none and will owe thousands by the time PC is done with me) leaves me wondering if maybe I should stay carless.  I mean, at $1.75 each way, I would only be spending $3 a day on transportation.  Gas is going up, not to mention my ever increasing insurance rate (like $150/month) is too.    So, while i wait for the check from the insurance company to get here and i shop around for cars, i’m going to be surviving on trains, buses, and my own two feet.

The experiment started today as I negotiated my way  home  from Writing for the Web in the midst of a nasty spring storm.  I waited out the rain (10 minutes of my life wasted), then hiked to the bus stop.  The bus came fairly quickly, and it dropped me off at the MARTA station in about five minutes.  Since I was at a complete loss as to which train to take, I looked for the most mom-like person on the bus to ask for directions.  I picked well; the nice professor from a local college knew exactly what i needed to do.  Unfortunately, it involved getting on one train and then switching to another.  I personally like to be able to zone out whenever possible, so sitting vigilantly staring at stops was a bummer.  When i made it to my final train stop, i dashed off the train only to have a horrifying moment of thinking i left my cell phone on the train.  Five heart stopping minutes after the train had rushed away, i found my phone and vowed to keep a closer eye on my possessions, which is just another stressor of public transportation. 

The last leg of my trip home was a fifteen minute late night stroll down Dekalb, which is pretty dark and deserted.  While I always feel incredibly safe in my neighborhood,  even I have a hard time convincing myself that this is a good idea.  I end up talking on my cell phone the whole walk, using up my daytime minutes as a defense against getting mugged. 

In the end, the trip took about thirty minutes longer than it would have in my car. So for the next week it looks like i’ll have to pad my daily schedule with an extra hour for any trip to make sure i get there on time.  With school and a job on the weekends, this could eat up the few precious minutes of free time i have.  On the upside, i got a fifteen minute workout walking about a mile as part of my trip home, so at least i’m multi-tasking travel with exercise.

 I’m going to go to sleep now and dream about cars and money….

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