Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Moving on Up!

Howdy loyal readers whom I adore.  And whoever found this blog randomly.  It's been a little while coming, and I was waiting til we were 100% ready, but Blogger is giving me a fit today, so I'm rolling it on out now.

Transit Misadventures is moving.

The site, not the AC or I.

We've joined blogging forces with That's MARTA to create a newer, betterer, and awesomer blog, MARTA Rocks!  Your Atlanta Transit Authority.

Yay!  Check it out while we spiffy it up and all that jazz.  But I'm excited and you should be too. 

Why?

Because MARTA Rocks!

(I am SO lame!)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Let's Talk Clayton County

I just got back from a meeting in Lovejoy.  Yea, Lovejoy.  Where is that, you ask?  Beats the living daylights out of me.  Somewhere south of the city.  Take 75, turn at nothing, and then turn again before the racetrack.  But they have a super lovely, brand new, not on the maps city hall.  It's a witch to find.

This is the fourth week into the creation of the Friends of Clayton County Transit.  This is a group, spear-headed by the wonderful state rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam, is focused on getting the MARTA amendment through the Clayton County commissioners and onto the ballot in November and passed to bring MARTA to Clayton and restore transit in that county.

I know, an easy task, right?

I have to admit, I have a political crush on Roberta.  She's great.  She's focusing on this, not her own campaign for re-election this November, and has even said that whether or not she's elected to serve another term is unimportant, this is a necessity.  Roberta is passionate.  When someone brought up the argument that transit is connected to low income and therefore crime, she stood up and said,"I came off of Section 8, I came off of the bus, I still don't have a car, now what?"  More of our politicians should be like her.  If there were, this state would be a better place to be.

But until we can get a state full of legislators like Roberta, we're campaigning to make MARTA in Clayton a reality. 

This is a fight that's more than C-Tran, it's about the environment, it's about economics, it's about growth.  Atlanta can't sustain this insatiable road lust, and transit means a better way of life.  For every dollar spent on transit, you get at least two back in economic growth.  It just makes sense.

To support the Friends of Clayton County Transit, join us on Facebook.  You can also find us on Twitter.

There will also be a fundraiser next Wednesday, June 16th, at Shout to help fund this campaign.  The fundraiser kicks off at 6:30 and the suggested minimum donation is $40.  You can come to the fundraiser or donate by mailing a check or going online.  But get your butts out and help us make world-class transit in Atlanta a reality. 

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

F*@%$ng Transit Karma

Last night and tonight were the MARTA hearings on the cuts.  I didn't go.  Hopefully That's MARTA! attended and will give us an update, but I felt like I already know the cuts and the people screaming at MARTA staff just annoy me.  I didn't have the heart.

That transit karma came back to bite me in the ass.

Yesterday I bought a bike.  I had spent months thinking about it, weeks looking at bikes, and days test riding bikes.  I fell in love with the Giant Citystorm, but wasn't going to pay $1450 for a bike, no matter how pretty it was.  It comes with matching bags.  It really is gorgeous.  So instead I found a lovely Raleigh Route 4.0.  Dark blue, which really is a kind of teal color, and I rode it around and it was awesome. 

I took Two to the store to gain his approval.  He thought it was a good choice, so I bought my bike and all the lovely accessories and loaded it onto the bike rack on the back of my car.

See, I thought that every good environmentalist and transit aficionado needed a good bike.  I have had bikes growing up and spent most of my childhood riding up and down the river with my friends.  We all lived so far apart that bikes were a necessity to hang out.  And to get to the best swimming holes.  (Growing up in south western Virginia really is quaint, and awesome).  But I hadn't ridden too much as an adult until my stint in Florida, where I learned how awesome and easy it was to ride a bike where it's flat.  You hardly have to do any work at all.  Peddle a few times and just soar.

Now I'm living in the ATL and a bunch of my friends are bikers to the extreme, some of them car free, like Two, thus making him my resident bike expert by default. Compared to SWVA, ATL is pretty flat.

So I bought a bike, a lovely bike, and the whole ride from the store to a sandwich shop on Peachtree I kept checking it out in my rear view mirror and grinning stupidly.  I was tickled about that bike.

When Two and I were in the sandwich shop, it was stolen off the rack on my car.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Transit Karma

For those of you who are regular readers, you already know that the biggest reason I ride transit is because I hate to drive.  I mean, the environmentalism aspect is cool and I pretend it gets me brownie points with One, but really, I hate being in a car and I'm afraid that I'm going to kill someone one day.  Not because I can't drive, but that most of the people out there can't and it infuriates me.  So until they come up with a teleportation device or some other magical way to beam me from the shelter to whatever coffee shop I'm meeting That's Marta! at, I'm taking MARTA.  I'm actually waiting on them to build me my own personal railway line up to Virginia so I don't have to make that six  hour drive every time I want to see my family. 

But today I was lazy.  I needed to run by the house and the bank and then to SIP to do work, and by work I mean blog.  So after hitting up the bank, I headed to SIP and was accosted by the very reason why I don't drive.  I was privy to the worst accident I've ever seen.  And I was nearly a part of it.

I was driving along my merry way on Piedmont when a van pulled out in to traffic.  I slammed on the breaks and swerved, thank God there was no one in the lane to my left, but the woman in the lane to my right wasn't so lucky.  Her VW was hit on the front quarter panel, driver's side, and her bumper ended up way down Pharr street (pronounced FAR.  Who the hell gets to name streets in Atlanta?)  So old van lady took out the VW lady and two other ladies waiting patiently at the light before coming to a stop.  I pulled into the gas station and ran over to check on VW, some other bystander checked on old van lady. 

The VW took a rough hit and the lady ended up taking a trip to Piedmont.  It's only by the grace of God that it wasn't me, and I took it hard and ended up sitting in my car crying, then proceeded to call One to ask for a hug.  He wasn't at the office but off at a meeting, the jerk.  Who schedules meetings during my irrational meltdowns, anyways?  Instead, I borrowed the Bus Nerd for hugs and conversation until I calmed my happy butt down.

But the crazy thing about all of this happened as I exchanged information with the VW lady in case she needed anything or a witness for insurance.  I gave her my card and she gave me hers, and that's when we noticed one anothers' name.  Her name is Anne.  We have the same last name, both of our first names start with A, and she works for the Metropolitan Atlanta Transit Consultants, a group that consults with MARTA. 
I'm not sure if the transit gods are telling me to get my butt out of the car and onto the bus or if they're giving me karma for being so retardly dedicated to MARTA.  Either way, this reinforces my own disdain for being a car owner. 

I did check up on AR (the VW lady) later on in the evening and she's doing okay.  And I did finally get a hug from One.