How I learned the Joys of Public Transportation

~Lin Thomas

Faced with the prospect of my next project being in Washington DC, I mumbled and grumbled about the idea of having to use public transportation to get to work. And my hubby made it a special point to be gleeful about it. Come on!! , he said, it’s cool to be working in DC. You can travel by the metro, sip a Starbucks and read the news paper. .Isn’t that awesome !!

Besides the fact that eating & drinking is not allowed on the metro and more importantly, Starbucks isn’t my favorite brand, I just couldn’t digest the fact that I would have to give up the comfort of my car and travel in the snow and rain by train and bus!!

I dragged myself to the Park & Ride close to home and boarded the bus that would take me to the nearest station. I have a 20 minute non stop bus ride and then a 20 minute train ride to work. I slowly began to realize that it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. In fact, it was pretty relaxing. I found a cozy seat on the train and began reading the newspaper I had picked. I realized that I actually read it, instead of scanning it as I would have at home. Suddenly my fears seemed unfounded. I looked around at all the friendly faces and it dawned on me that here I was traveling to work, not worried about the traffic on the beltway ,not worried about the car that rudely cut in front of me or the sulky driver behind honking at me. I was actually relaxing!!   Isn’t that a luxury few can afford on the way to a dreary day at work?

Traveling by the metro instills in you an unusual reality check. The young CEO and the day laborer paid the same ticket and enjoyed the same status in a metro. There was this unusual sense of camaraderie amongst the passengers. As day went by I began to love my travel all the more. I got time to catch up on my reading, listen to music, plan a party and also be updated on the latest fashion trends thanks to the fashion divas who board the train once you enter the ‘District of Columbia’.

Public transportation offers you many choices. It offers you some time to reflect and analyze the life around you and be more in touch with people from different walks of life. You can make some friends, solve some puzzles or even catch up on some sleep lost due to a late night movie.

Talking about sleep, it is not the best thing to do if you are a deep sleeper. You might have to get a ride back to the station you missed or better still miss out on some interesting happenings. One fine day as my bus went down the Dulles Toll-free Road, a co-passenger decided to take a snooze. Let’s call him Sleepyhead.  Our new driver who was obviously unfamiliar with the roads forgot to take exit into the parallel road that leads to our exit. Once you miss that road there’s no turning back. It takes you straight to the Dulles airport. None of us realized something was amiss until we began to see some unfamiliar buildings. The first thought was that we had got into the wrong bus. All of us turned to each other and said where are we going? Everyone looked really amused. If you are familiar with the Dulles airport roads you’ll know that you need to travel quite a bit till you can actually get back to the highway in the opposite direction. Add to that some construction work and we really did have a joy ride. Sleepyhead was blissfully unaware of all what was happening. After a good 15 minutes ride through all the new construction in the Dulles area we were on our way back. This time our driver did not make a mistake and we were on our exit ramp. Everyone in the bus began clapping, reminiscent of the days when planes landed successfully post 9/11. Sleepyhead woke up with all the commotion and really looked confused seeing that the 30 other passengers were all clapping on the bus. He looked around and everything looked just the same as it did every day. The look of confusion on his face was a sight worth savoring for me as a bus rider. Don’t you agree now that public transportation has its own share of fun and advantages.

(Published in Kerala Digest 2004)
(The author continues to work in Washington Dc and the love-hate relationship with public transportation  continues.... 8 years and counting :-)..)