clutter

I’m trying to get around without my car this week to see what kind of changes I have to make to my routine. We’re thinking about going down to one car- Tom had offered to go without his, because the Beetle is my dream car and he didn’t want me to have to give it up. But here’s the thing: I’m kind of sick of having a car, when I live so close to the Metro. It made sense when I didn’t live near reliable and frequent public transportation, but that’s no longer the case. The bus stops practically at my door, and there’s a Metro station, ZipCar, and Capital Bikeshare within 7 blocks.

Meanwhile, if I give up driving to work, the subsidy my employer pays toward my parking fee, which covers considerably less than half the cost (to be fair, most of my portion is deducted pre-tax), will instead be paid in Metro benefits, which can cover anywhere from 2/3 of my public transit commuting costs to nearly double them, depending on how much I ride Metrorail vs. Metrobus. 

So this week I am going car-free, except Thursday when I have dance class in Vienna. We’ll see how it works out.  

This morning, Tom and I set an alarm for 6AM- he had to be out of the house early and I’m a slacker about getting moving in the morning, so I gave myself the extra time. It was difficult, because we were up until midnight and walked several miles yesterday, but I managed to be downstairs before 7AM and even had time to pack lunch. 

Thanks to NextBus, I walked out the door at 7:12, caught the G8 bus (with my next door neighbor) to Brookland station, and only had to wait a couple of minutes for the H1 Potomac Park. I got off the H1 at the office at 8:12. 60 minutes door to door. It takes me 45 minutes to drive it, but on the bus I get to space out, check Twitter, watch the city go by, etc. On this first day, at least, it seems like a fair trade.

The H1 is definitely the easiest way to work: It starts in Brookland and will drop me at 23rd & C. The G8/H1 route costs $1.50 ($1.25 if I skip the G8 and walk to the Metro, but it’s uphill and I’m breaking one slacker habit at a time, thanks), and I don’t have to walk more than half a block on either end of the trip. 

The problem with this route is that the H1 is pretty much a commuter route. It runs from about 6AM to 8AM in the mornings, and from 4PM to just after 6PM in the evenings, and I routinely work until 6 or 6:30, so I have to make a concerted effort to catch it.

But! I have many other options. I can take the G8 from my house to the Metro and jump on the red line, transfer to the Orange line, and then either walk from Foggy Bottom or catch a bus down to C St. Taking the Metro train makes the cost $3.45. Or I could take the G8 from my house all the way to Farragut West, and then jump on the Metro to Foggy Bottom. Or I can take the G8 to Brookland Station and jump on either of two buses that will drop me at 21st & Virgina, walk two blocks, and it’ll still cost the same $1.50.

It may be that I can skip the train altogether and just get a data plan for the iPad. :) WMATA’s trip planner is about to be my best friend.