Browsed by
Category: commuting

Up and Out

Up and Out

Comments 0 Comment

Like many people these days I don’t need to leave my house to ply my trade. I can do it quite comfortably from my in-home office. The temptation, then, is to stay inside far too much, especially in the mornings, when I do most of my writing, and especially in winter, when it’s cold. 

But lately, I’ve been trundling out to a 9 a.m. Wednesday yoga class, climbing into a frigid car, battling rush-hour traffic (that again?!) and reaching class barely in time for sun salutations.

I love my small class — and the people in it. And I’ve come to realize that I also love getting up and out “early” one day of the week. Early is relative, of course. I used to leave the house before 7 every day. 

(A photo from the old days of “up and out.”)

A Single Step

A Single Step

Comments 0 Comment

I live close enough to Dulles Airport that I can hear the planes taking off and landing, especially, I’m sorry to say, when windy or stormy weather requires the use of another runway. 

Until recently, though, the only way to reach the airport was by taxi or by wrangling a ride from a friend or relative. But that has changed recently. Now you can take Metro to Dulles … provided, of course, you can reach Metro. 

Which is how we came up with this crazy scheme: Today, we’ll embark on this journey of (more than) a thousand miles with a single step. We’ll walk out of the house and trek about 15 minutes to a bus stop, where we’ll board a bus that will take us to Metro, which will take us to the airport.

It seems an appropriate way to begin a trip that will rely almost solely on public transportation. But around here, it will seem pretty crazy. And that’s what makes it fun.

Hopeful Signs

Hopeful Signs

Comments 0 Comment

For years I rose early and left the house, then drove 20 minutes to the Metro station, where I boarded the train that took me to an office in the city.

A couple days ago, I made my first Metro trip of the year… of the year! And this, of course, in the eleventh of twelve months. What to say, other than once again how much the pandemic has upended our lives.

This week I rode in during evening rush hour but the train was only half full, and I felt myself strangely longing for the bustle of evening at the Vienna station. 

There were hopeful signs, though, new stations that will open next week as part of the Silver Line, and the crazy fact that even though my return train was emptier than the one heading into town … I ran into two people I knew. 

Terror in the Tunnel

Terror in the Tunnel

Comments 0 Comment

For 15 years I was a Metro commuter, riding the Orange Line train from Vienna to the District and, later, to the Crystal City area of Arlington. Before that, long before that,  I rode the New York City subway whenever I wasn’t walking through the Big Apple. 

All of which is to say, I’ve spent way too many hours/days/years (?) of my life riding the rails of some underground transport system or the other. I mastered the art of looking the other way when disturbed people entered my car and began hectoring fellow riders — or of slipping away entirely and hopping on an adjacent car when matters seemed to be spiraling out of control. 

I can only imagine yesterday’s horror on the N Train in Brooklyn: the smoke, the shooting, the blood, the panic. Terror has erupted, this time in a subway tunnel. Not to be gloomy, but it’s only a matter of time before it erupts somewhere else again.

Once More to Metro

Once More to Metro

Comments 0 Comment

Yesterday I went to D.C. via Metro, a trip I used to make most mornings but which I had not made since March 12, 2020.  That’s 15 months … a fact that even now I can’t quite absorb.

The parking garage was almost deserted at 2:30 p.m., likewise the platform and the train itself. I did quickly realize, however, that one of the other two souls on my car seemed to be psychotic, so at the first stop I moved to the next car.  That’s my Metro! 

Otherwise, though, the old system was gussied up and spit-polished, with new announcement boards and shelters and someone cleaning the elevator in the middle of the afternoon. 

I rode three lines, the Orange, Red and Silver. I read the newspaper, as I used to do, and noticed the changing scenery out the window. 

It was almost like old times … except there were almost no people riding with me. 

Vienna Waits For You

Vienna Waits For You

Comments 0 Comment

Yesterday, for the first time since March 12, I drove to the Vienna Metro Station. Though assured that the money I’d had taken from my paycheck would remain on the flex account charge card past year’s end, I wasn’t going to test it out. I needed the funds from the credit card to be on the Metro card — and drove there to make the transfer.

It was my first trip to Vienna Metro in nine months, and I relished the old twists and turns of the drive there: Fox Mill to Vale to Hunter Mill to Chain Bridge to Old Courthouse to Sutton and on to the station. 

The lighting was all wrong, of course. I usually did this leg of the commute in darkness or early morning shadows. And the traffic was much lighter, as it is most everywhere most all of the time.

But once there, it was not at all like the Vienna Metro Station I know.  I found myself improbably alone, like the survivor of a nuclear apocalypse. There were no cabs idling, no buskers singing, no harried commuters rushing to and fro. The place was as lonesome as a schoolyard in summer.

Here was a place I knew like the back of my hand. Here was a round-trip I took most work days in my former life. It was a place and a practice that changed abruptly last spring. And I doubt it will ever be the same. 

Public Transport

Public Transport

Comments 0 Comment

My world changed dramatically on March 12, 2020, the last day I commuted into Washington, D.C. for my job. With my company having decided that the earliest we will return is January 2021, and the openness to telework after that, I think it’s fairly safe to assume that I probably won’t have to work in an office full-time again.

This is amazing in many ways, one of which is that is that I’ve gone from riding public transport three to four times a week to … not at all. And I’m not the only one. According to statistics in this morning’s Washington Post, ridership in one local transit system dropped by 95 percent. Similar shifts are happening in cities all over the country. 

I’m sorry about this, sorry because I think public transportation is the way more of us should be getting around. But I’m happy too, because my commute was a grueling, often three-hour roundtrip. I imagine I’m not alone in these mixed feelings. 

It’s only one of many challenges created by the strange new environment in which we live. Only one of many models, ways of doing things, that are crumbling, morphing, transforming, becoming a new world, seemingly overnight.

Open Pavement

Open Pavement

Comments 0 Comment

Last week I ran an errand that involved driving home via the commuting route I used to take B.C. (Before Covid). I came down Nutley, turned left on Old Courthouse then left again on Route 123 before taking a right on Hunter Mill then the rest of the way home.

There were almost no cars on the road, as you might expect, and as eerie as it was, the commuting self in me (homo commutus?) rejoiced. Here, finally, was something we all crave around here, something rare and precious — open pavement.

As these weeks of quarantine give way to something more ominous — weeks (months?) of uncertain re-openings, re-closings and second-guessings, I think back on those empty roads I saw last week. They were broad, they were empty, they were beautiful. But as we all know … they can’t last.


(An almost-empty road in Colorado. It’s harder to find pictures of empty roads around here.)

Driving In

Driving In

Comments 0 Comment

Every so often, I drive to the office rather than taking Metro. Whenever I do, I’m amazed at how easy it is to get here. Public transportation turns a journey into a series of segments — the drive to the Metro, the Orange Line ride to Rosslyn, changing to the Blue Line for the five stops to Crystal City, then the walk from the Metro Station to the office.

On the other hand, driving in is all of a piece. Yes, there are directions to follow; there is merging, passing and the usual frustrations of life behind the wheel. But in terms of steps taken, it’s simple.

Why don’t I do it all the time, you wonder. Because I can’t, at least not easily.  The most direct route charges solo drivers up to $50 for the privilege of traveling nine miles on pockmarked roads. So unless I have a passenger, or the high-occupancy vehicle restrictions are lifted, I take Metro.

This is good for my carbon footprint, but bad for the only bottom line that really matters in the end —  time spent.

As I was strolling to the office from the parking garage this morning, I noticed how close it is to what will be our new office location. That may be incentive enough to drive in the long-way around (which is possible). Maybe that will be my treat to myself for the next year or two. A bit more simplicity, and, in the end, a lot more time.

White Stripes

White Stripes

Comments 0 Comment

Crosswalks in my neighborhood are getting a facelift. A set of them on a road I drive every weekend have new paint, flashing lights and big signs in neon yellow to remind motorists to stop.

In my work neighborhood I’ve started taking a new route to the office, one that involves a crosswalk and the forbearance of drivers.

It’s interesting to be on either end of crosswalk etiquette — as a pedestrian on weekdays and a driver on weekends. It helps me see how important it is to share the road, to look out for the errant ambler or the distracted driver.

More than anything else, a crosswalk encourages engagement. Those white stripes on the road can be a walker’s — and a driver’s — best friend.