There are a few things going on this time of year that can make things particularly hazardous. The biggest change is that schools around the region are opening if they haven't already. That means more cars on the roads. That means more school buses on neighborhood and other surface streets. That means children walking from home to bus stop and back again. It really is a lot more activity to deal with and it requires you to pay attention if you are behind the wheel of a vehicle for even the shortest distance (such as from home to transit stop).
The other thing that is changing rapidly is the time that the sun is rising and setting. This is significant to pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers because it means that our field of vision changes; it's harder to see things that are far away or that are blended into other masses such as bushes, trees, parked cars and what have you.
It's just important to keep a close watch out, to be aware that things are different and that the others on the road or sidewalk or crosswalk are experiencing the same sort of changes and some will handle it better than others.
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The following is an example of what I find to be a challenge for transit: My daughter lives in Bethesda but only moved there a short time ago. She had been living in Boston without a car and got to know the city's subway and bus system very well. Living here she has a car and doesn't regret it. Part of her job involves classes that she must take to learn new techniques and her group had been meeting in a building off Courthouse Road. I asked her why she didn't take the Metro and leave her car at home or at a Metro station closer to her. Her answer was rather well thought out.
She had calculated the amount of time it would take to get to the nearest Metro station there in Bethesda. Taking a bus, she said, would double or even triple the time based on the few trips she had already made in that direction. But what about the expense of the gas and the parking, I asked. It would cost her less than a gallon of gas in her little car and then there was the parking which was reimbursed by her company and was only six dollars for the day anyway.
To get where she was going in less than a third the time and for less money over the price of subway fare seems like a no-brainer. The one question for which she didn't have a good answer was: What about the impact on the environment? Knowing her though, she probably had the amount of particulate matter calculated as well as the cumulative impact of the transit bus and her portion of the electricity used to power the rail cars.
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Wheelchair Chronicles
The other day I was sitting in my wheelchair waiting for the person who was driving me to bring the van around and pick me up. I was on a wide sidewalk on M Street and felt that I was out of harm's way as dozens and dozens of people walked by. There was one person though that I started keeping an eye on. This woman was reading a hardcover book as she walked down what I have discovered to be a very bumpy and irregular sidewalk. I feared for her safety for a good long time but, as she got ever closer to me, started to question my own "parking space."
When this woman got about twenty feet away from me and when it became obvious that she wasn't looking far enough ahead to see me I started to consider my options. The problem was that I really couldn't move at this moment because of the combination of a bicycle rack, a parking meter and all of those people. My only option was auditory. "HELLO," I said as she approached. She looked up from her book with a start and said the most incredible thing: "What in the world are you doing there?" My response was equally inane but, in hindsight, I think it was borne of the surprise of the whole situation: "I'm trying not to get run over by people reading books while they walk."
Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.
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