Taking the much-derided (by me) Light Rail to work today for the 1st time ever for this job. Don’t let me down. Might be needing you awhile.
Just recently my car has been declared “borderline dangerous” by a mechanic who quoted a price that finally exceeded what I was willing to spend on my 19 year old 200 thousand mile Subaru Legacy. Circumstances have led my wife and me to adopt a car sharing/walking/public transportation stopgap solution to our now one-car household.
To that end…
I have been taking the light rail to my job, over 10 miles away at BWI Airport. The light rail, for those who may not know, is a half-hearted but well-meaning attempt at offering a mid-sized city a way for suburbanites to get downtown for the baseball game.
At least, that’s what it feels like. But since I don’t have a car and the damn thing is a 7 minute walk from my house, I feel obligated to give it a try. And since sitting for 45 minutes to an hour lends itself to idle tweeting and observation, I present many of them here.
Back to the light rail. Today is a good job for transit: work then back downtown for the O's game. Ticket kiosk took 3 swipes to work. That is a real problem. I have allowed a whole 8 to 10 minutes for this, but God help anyone who doesn't carry multiple credit cards.
Yeah, this was my first problem on the first bright and sunny day I had to take the train to work at 557 am to make my 730 start time. But I persisted.
I think @mtamaryland needs to work on getting the payment method up to speed for people who aren't technologically savvy or who don't have multiple cards to try at defective machines. #mytwocents
I made it that first day and I felt pretty good. I learned that it was a long walk from the light rail stop at the airport to my work area, but that in what I call a “motivated walk,” can do it in 6 minutes.
More light rail thoughts...I think public transportation in general has gotten better for wheelchair users at least in that most buses "kneel" and let the little ramp down so the person can wheel right on. Used to be this awful lift that always broke down. @mtamaryland
The next week, this happened:
Welp. Train broke down in front of my train. Train stuck. I bailed out. Taking Lyft for maybe my 2nd time by myself. #LightRailFail
Yeah, so that happened. It was kind of shitty, but I had to get to work. I went through the progression of options. I chose to use Lyft.
This is basically the equivalent of the "oh shit I'm late have to park in the expensive garage." Back up plans have to be part of any transit plans here.
And…
Anyway, Lyft driver Loretta got me to work, no bs, I thanked her, said "You're awesome!" and gave her a good tip and top rating. But damn...can't do that every day.
I had to take the light rail the next day and became aware of a situation that would impact my Saturday commute.
So...stations being closed thru the weekend....does that mean we have to get off the train and take a shuttle? I'm going up to Cold Spring.
@mtamaryland
Riding home on the light rail on my last Saturday for a while. There is a service change where we need to get off at Patapsco and ride a shuttle, then reboard the train at Convention Center. If it is as easy as the operator says, no problem. It'll factor into my report.
First Spoiler: this did not go well.
All right, well...I'm at Convention Center and...This whole "step back on the train" thing is not going well...will @mtamaryland reimburse me for having to use Lyft twice in one week?
And….
This one guy said he's been waiting "for a minute." He got on the southbound train which is supposed to turn back and be my northbound train...in another minute. MTA is turning out to be what I always thought it was. Where's that Denny Green gif?
@mtamaryland
I'm not in a huge hurry...but my cat is gonna be a dick and I just want to get home.
Car just drove down the tracks like...for 3 blocks. People are so stupid.
And finally…
All right. Back on that train. On a normal day of this, woulda been home 10 minutes ago.
In summary:
It is nice to not have to deal with rush hour traffic. I like just sitting and listening to music and not having to do anything. I feel like I am being a responsible global citizen by doing public transportation like this. I mentioned the wheelchair accessibility.
But… I have to give the whole experience at best a C minus. I had to use Lyft. The ticket machines are SOOOOOO shitty. The system is so small time that it only takes a small issue to mess up the whole route. If I had a working vehicle, I would not even think about taking light rail to work.
There is no way in Hell anyone in Baltimore should ever voluntarily give up a vehicle and trust the MTA. Stuff like what is happening now happens way too much for me just being a casual rider.
And that is my week on light rail.
