9.22.2006
A new drive
So I gave up. Last year I really diligently and dutifully tried to use public transportation and walking and begging rides to get around Atlanta. And at the end of this summer, as I thought about the prospect of coming back to that life of endless frustration and humiliation, I just couldn't do it. So, reluctantly, regretfully, I bought a car. And I LOVE it.
The car is a 94 with 160,000 miles. It is surrounded with dents, has sticky locks, no horn, no aircon, no automatic anything, and a seatbelt warning sign that pings constantly. When I put gas into it, I have to pry open the little door, using my key as a lever. But I think it's perfect.
I still walk and take the bus to school, and during rush hour I still take the bus downtown. But in two weeks I've used the car to go to places I never would have gone to without it: to an Amnesty International meeting downtown, to the batting cage, to the grocery store, to visit a friend who was sick at home. As long as it runs for the year, it will have been completely worth it. I still think it's outrageous that public transportation is so bad in Atlanta, and it is just one more privilege of wealth that I was able to opt out of relying on it. But I love my car.
My baby.
The car is a 94 with 160,000 miles. It is surrounded with dents, has sticky locks, no horn, no aircon, no automatic anything, and a seatbelt warning sign that pings constantly. When I put gas into it, I have to pry open the little door, using my key as a lever. But I think it's perfect.
I still walk and take the bus to school, and during rush hour I still take the bus downtown. But in two weeks I've used the car to go to places I never would have gone to without it: to an Amnesty International meeting downtown, to the batting cage, to the grocery store, to visit a friend who was sick at home. As long as it runs for the year, it will have been completely worth it. I still think it's outrageous that public transportation is so bad in Atlanta, and it is just one more privilege of wealth that I was able to opt out of relying on it. But I love my car.
My baby.
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If you can't make transit work for you in Atlanta, no one can! You made a valiant effort and I'm proud of you. I tell your story often at the Federal Transit Administration. Friday we had a policy forum where the speaker showed some fascinating slides about the density and area and distribution of people and jobs in Atlanta versus a European city of comparable population but much smaller land area, where transit really works. Then he went on and on about the benefit of managed lanes/congestion pricing for moving cars and express buses as really the only transit alternative that could work in a city like Atlanta. I asked, but yes, what about people without cars and mobility for the trips within the community - not just the express/commuter links? He had no good answers.
And the clunker you bought isn't a sign of wealth - I think you've risen about to the level of the "working poor." [I don't think it can pass a safety inspection without a horn. But your sister suggested maybe you could just get a clown's bulb-type horn to use. Clarabelle is dead, long live Clarabelle.]
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And the clunker you bought isn't a sign of wealth - I think you've risen about to the level of the "working poor." [I don't think it can pass a safety inspection without a horn. But your sister suggested maybe you could just get a clown's bulb-type horn to use. Clarabelle is dead, long live Clarabelle.]
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