As I gaze thru the window on the way to work I've passed many gas stations and watched the price creeping up. I'm grateful that my seventy-five cent senior pass is going to pay for my three bus ride to work as I certainly couldn't get there on seventy five cents worth of gas, let alone the cost of the car payment and insurance. I wonder how other people are coping with limited incomes and the need to find a job. However, my mode of transportation was not really a choice.
In February I was in an automobile accident early in the morning in which my car was destroyed and I broke my back. It was my fault but I harmed no other person or property but myself. I'll be out of my turtle shell brace in three weeks.
With no family and a reluctance to impose upon my friends I quickly found that if I needed to get somewhere I would have to take a bus. By week four of my recovery I was back at my yearly tax season job having lost 30% of my annual income from everything but my social security. I was resentful and grateful at the same time - the extra time it took, the fact that my choice of a pre-work breakfast was limited to a couple of fast food restaurants instead of my favorite restaurants which was warm, friendly and good-while I would have no income at all had it not been for the bus.
It was very tiring and about once a week I cheated and took a taxi to that restaurant and a bus the last mile, an extravagance I would justify that I could arrive less tired and work an extra hour to pay for the trip.
I bus to the grocery store and the pharmacy and to the hospital what cared for me for checkups. The waits betweens buses were sometimes long - it was often cold and very often raining as Seattle has had a very, very wet spring. But I knew that, if I chose, it was temporary. After all, my insurance company had paid off the car loan and given me money which I could use for a downpayment on another car.
For many of my fellow travelers, there were no other options than the bus. I rode with many handicapped people whose mechanical wheelchairs had their special places. I rode with lots of students and people who worked for the city or county who were given free bus passes. I rode with seniors who carried cloth bags filled with groceries as this was there only means of getting to the store. I rode with the mentally handicapped who sang or chatted to themselves loudly but were generally tolerated as long as they didn't impose on others. I wrote with dogs - service dogs could ride for free as could any dog that could be held on your lap. A dog that needed a seat was supposed be charged the same person as his master, but that rule was not strictly enforced. I heard many different languages.
I traveled with bus drivers who were friendly or not. I judged the bus drivers to some extent on how they treated the people in wheelchairs. There are two seat belts for these chairs - some of the drivers would just lay them where the rider could reach them and others would help them but them togoether. I like the generosity of the last.
So, the brace comes off in a few weeks. I have the money to buy a car but not to keep making car payments so I am stepping down, certainly in comfort and possibly in safety. I hope my best friend's husband will go with me when I make my purchase as I have never bought a used car before now. Or, I can remain carless and keep riding the bus. It took an hour to buy a quart of milk last Sunday because there are many buses runnng on Sundays. Something to think about.