Life Across The Pond

Zip Zip

For the past two and a half months, I've been trying to live by way of San Francisco public transportation. The impetus for this is two-fold. First, having lived in NY for a couple of years, I grew accustomed to this carefree mode of travel - I don't have to drive in stop-and-go traffic, I don't circle around looking for parking, and I don't worry about getting home after a night out. Secondly, and while I'd like to say I'm being environmentally conscious, it's really that I like not being in debt and making car payments.

Unfortunately, SF isn't quite as conducive to being car-less as NY is. Busses don't run all night and definitely not as extensively as they do in NY and unless you're in the right area, finding cabs can be a tricky proposition. On top of that, you can't get everything delivered here like you can in NY. Case in point, last Saturday I had to lug my own clothes the four blocks from the wash-n-fold/dry cleaners - 30 lbs of laundry in one arm, 5 shirts, a sweater, and a pair of slacks in the other. (Sure, I could have done my own laundry in my own building. But that's not the point.)

So, last night, I decided to finish out the rest of my zipcar credit for the month and picked up a car from the BART station one stop from my office and kept it overnight. And while having the car to go look for furniture and pick up groceries was nice, the fact that I was able to get down to San Mateo, find out that they don't stock furniture at that Crate and Barrel, and then head back into the city to pick up some groceries all in the same time it would take me to ride BART, transfer to the non-express bus, and walk the four blocks home from the bus stop was even nicer.

With each day, my commitment to public transportation seems to be fading. Watching clips like this probably isn't helping much either.

posted by Peter @ 5:06 PM