Friends who live in Chicago and Washington tell me about their daily commutes on the L and the Metro. They say they can read an entire issue of The New Yorker in a couple of trips. Once, when a friend got into a discussion about energy on the Washington Metro, he discovered that his fellow commuter was a nuclear physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
And now, courtesy of Charlotte Area Transit System's No. 14 bus, I’ve built my own community of riders and developed the superpower of conjugating French verbs.
Until my car was totaled about five months ago in a collision on Providence Road, I figured experiences like these were available only in really big cities. But the accident forced me to take the bus, and I discovered passengers on the same route who knew something I didn’t.
Taking the bus gives me back an hour every day that I can use for whatever I want, and I avoid the stress of driving on overcrowded roads at rush hour. I hadn’t realized the stress of a daily commute until a bus driver started doing the driving for me.
Community on the No. 14
I drive my new-to-me 2014 Subaru to a CATS park-and-ride lot three miles from my house at the Arboretum shopping center. (After my accident, my wife dropped me off there each morning; when we bought a used second car I began driving myself.) The lot is surrounded by security cameras, at least six on the roof of the Walmart alone. It’s the terminus for the No. 14 bus, and the 7:38 a.m. bus is almost always on time.
The No. 14 runs about every 30 minutes and goes along Providence between the Arboretum and the transportation center uptown. My morning commute takes me past the Jewish Community Center and several big Lutheran, Methodist and Episcopal churches. The bus lets me off at Myers Park Presbyterian, where I walk about a mile to my office at Queens University. The 7:38 starts with about five passengers, and there are 15 to 20 by the time I get off shortly before 8 a.m.
There’s a community on the No. 14. There’s Phil, an architect who works uptown and once gave me a ride when our bus was 30 minutes late. Stacy works third shift and is finishing her day just as I’m starting mine. Ron from Boston knows the best bagel shops in Charlotte. Robin works at a medical office and wears robin’s egg blue scrubs. And Angela, my favorite bus driver, has one of the brightest smiles in the city. She’s radiant when she helps people with bicycles, wheelchairs and strollers.
For almost 20 years, studies have indicated long car commutes create loneliness, obesity, back trouble and family tension. But it’s hard to be lonely when I’m joking with Robin about how something smells like weed at the Queens Road stop — and we glance up to see a driver smoking in a truck with an open window. He’s looking our way.
Sometimes it becomes an adventure. Once, when weather and a big accident forced detours, the bus had to make a U-turn. The driver asked me and another passenger if we could direct traffic, so she could back up. We succeeded.
People watching
The No. 14 provides a great perch for watching people. Two newborn babies so little they fit in a single stroller — wow! That guy in the wheelchair who gets on one stop after me — the one with the Jake Gyllenhaal haircut. Is he a programmer uptown? A mom and a toddler with matching sparkly pink Crocs. And a new metallic brown Audi! I haven’t seen a new brown car since the 1970s.
Tangential benefits
My commute forces me to walk an additional two miles a day. I don’t have to pack clothes and schedule time at a gym, and bus schedules place some structure around when I start and stop my workday.
When I look around the bus and see a dozen fellow commuters, that’s at least 10 fewer cars on the road. And it’s cheap — $2.20 buys you a standard trip, and it’s $1.10 if you’re 60 or over. If you commute by car, there are waiting lists for uptown parking garages. Even if you get a parking spot, it’s about $200 a month.
Bumps in the road
Charlotte mass transit is not commuting nirvana. Several of my colleagues just can’t make the routes work for them. Signs on the bus say “Free WiFi,” but I’ve never been able to get it working. Buses are enclosed spaces carrying anywhere from five to 20 people, so I wear a mask. I pay a lot more attention to weather and footwear, carry an umbrella and make other plans for days with errands or doctor appointments.
But recovering an hour a day makes the bus worth it. There are days when I write an entire recommendation for a student on the bus. I’ve conjugated and checked the pronunciation of dozens of verbs for a French class I’m auditing.
I wrote this column on the bus.
Without a gigantic infusion of government money and a huge increase in the price of gasoline, I doubt if we’ll see a Charlotte Metro for decades. In the meantime, buses are cheap rubber-tired alternatives. At times, I become so engrossed in what I’m reading that I miss my stop, and I get to walk an extra half-mile.
Bob Page is director of student media at Queens University of Charlotte, where he teaches in the Knight School of Communication.