As a west coast transplant, moving to the DC area was a harsh new reality – how could major freeways (I’m looking at you, I-66) only be two lanes wide? How on earth is it faster to walk to some places than drive? And who are all these people on bicycles? After having spent eight years living in Los Angeles, I was accustomed to 6-lane freeways (albeit also congested) and the very real threat of getting a ticket for jaywalking, which doesn’t even seem like a possibility here. I also lived in Las Vegas for the last two years, where no one dared to ride a bike in a place where the temperature regularly reached 116 degrees. There was also an abundance of free, covered parking directly in front of my destination. I’m not going to lie. I absolutely miss the west coast. It’s hard to adjust when you’ve been so used to living a certain way for all of your adult life.
But life brought me to DC and something had to give. I did my best to drive at first, but the traffic here frustrated me incredibly – and this coming from someone who found no issue commuting for a year from Orange County to Los Angeles (all of 35 miles, which took up to two hours each way). I think multiple lanes helps ease the mind – when there are only two lanes not moving instead of six, somehow it’s worse. I also found drivers in this area to be incredibly aggressive, which makes no sense to me since they inevitably end up having to stop at the next light several yards away. But perhaps the breaking point was having to pay for parking that still required me to walk a short distance to my destination. I’m not ashamed to say it – west coast driving habits made me spoiled and lazy.
I gave up trying to maintain my SOV lifestyle a few weeks into it, and it has actually been going pretty well. The cost savings are amazing. Not only do I save about $100 a month or more on what I used to spend on gas, I also canceled my satellite radio subscription since I hardly spend any time in my car, another savings of close to $200 a year. I had bought a new car a year before moving here, so it didn’t make sense to sell it, but I am still saving on weekly car washes ($15 a week) and not having to buy an extended warranty (a must when you drive your car 20k miles a year - $2,000 onetime charge).
I’ve finally found a commute pattern that works best for me – take the train to work in the morning and hop on the bus back in the evening. Since I work near Rosslyn Metro station, I even get a quick forced workout walking up that crazy long escalator followed by a hill leading to the office. It’s really been great, and surprisingly, has become my new “norm”— So much so that when I went to visit family in Orlando, Florida last month, it was strange to me that the only option to go anywhere was to drive. In the end, it was really my laziness and impatience that motivated me to consider a more sustainable commute, but it’s all been for the best. I’m curious to know how other transplants, from the west coast or elsewhere, have adjusted – what motivated you?
By Tarryn Lee at goDCgo
goDCgo is an initiative of the District Department of Transportation that provides employees, residents and visitors with the education and assistance they need to make more informed choices about their daily travel. Focusing on the overall reduction of single-occupant vehicle travel through the promotion of more sustainable modes, our efforts help decrease traffic congestion and improve air quality thus creating a better quality of life in the District and its surrounding jurisdictions.
