Alison Wiley over at the Diamond-Cut Life blog wrote about how she personally took some steps to help lower her “consumption lifecycle.” She took a cue from Michael Pollan’s piece in the NY Times called “Why Bother”. What she’s been doing:
“Me? I’ve been working in our food garden and enjoying a car-free weekend, using my legs and a TriMet bus to get me everywhere I’m going — church, the film “End of Suburbia” at the Bagdad on Hawthorne, and a dinner party reunion of our cross-country skiing group. Fun!”
Awesome about the bus part! I’m interested in knowing - did Alison never ride a bus before? I mean, I know some people have this “thing” about how the bus is not an attractive mode of transportation. And while this may be the case in some cities, I find that commuting on the bus in Portland is not only attractive (they keep the bus in about as good as shape as possible considering the rider #s) but is also quite speedy.
Keep it up Alison!
2 comments ↓
I just found TriMetiquette thru Alison’s blog. I too am taking up public transportation more as part of my many different efforts to reduce my personal consumption. I used to commute by bus and MAX, but since having kids and staying home with them full time, found it too challenging. Lately, I’ve been riding MAX downtown when I have an adults-only event to go to downtown. Last night, for example, I rode MAX and the 77 for a meeting at Good Sam in NW–easy peasy and hardly took anymore time than it would have to drive and I could READ, something I don’t get to do at home! My husband uses MAX to take the kids to the zoo. Starting this week, though, I’m going to try using the bus with the kids at least once a month…maybe more often as I get into the swing of it.
Good stuff Chris. You know, typically, the human response for “riding the bus” is a negative one… but I have to say, Portland truly does have a great network of bus routes & pretty decent frequency of buses running on popular routes.
I won’t lie - at least for me, it was a little daunting the first or second time I chose to ride the bus (I was strictly a MAX guy). But now I prefer riding the bus to the MAX.
Good luck!
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