Current Mood:
Cool

One of the reasons that we moved into this house was because of its access to public transportation. But we never really explored it because it’s so much quicker and more convenient to hop in the car and zip off to where ever we need to go. However, both of our cars have over 200,000 miles, so they are prone to problems. One car’s power steering went out, the other’s brakes started having problems. So we decided to explore options for my husband to get to and from work. His workplace is about 40 miles away; even further with recent highway construction. So we explored http://metrostlouis.org and saw that a train and a bus would take him directly to work! It’s not perfect, it’s a longer commute time with that distance, but how else could he get an extra nap in on the way to work?
No really, if you’re in the metro St. Louis area, go to the Tripfinder and see if there’s a viable way for you to use Metro. Especially the trains. Not only are they fun, but they are fast! They don’t have to worry with traffic or stop lights. Stops at stations are generally about 30 seconds. And $68 a month? He was spending more than that in two weeks! And the trains and buses run in the snow, so no worries about having to navigate crappy streets.
So now that you’ve checked out the site, you may want some tips on your ride, because it may be long.
Before you go:
- Print your itinerary. The website’s schedule is pretty excessive with displaying each stop; I generally copy and paste it into a text file, remove all the stops except for a couple before mine, break it up properly for switching buses and trains, then print.
- Bring amusements. Portable DVD players and Kindle readers are fairly popular… and make sure it’s charged! I like to bring along knitting. Just please be mindful of fellow passengers and bring along headphones for noisy things. And if your amusement is going to be texting your friends, please set your phone to vibrate. No one wants to hear your racket.
- Have weather-appropriate clothing. You may be standing at a bus stop for a while. A compact umbrella can be your best friend.
- Have exact change, and have it out when you hop on the bus. Check the fares to find out how much you need. Metrolink stations give change, but a bus does not. Not all Metrolink stations will accept $20’s. If you intend on using them often, get bigger passes. Because I don’t ride daily, I get a pack of ten two-hour passes so I’m not fumbling when I hop on the bus. Dollar coins are great for hopping on the bus if you don’t have a pass!
- Once you have your pass, keep it handy, especially on trains. Metro security hop on and off all day, checking passes. They are just doing their job. Some days you’ll get checked every stop. Some days you won’t ever get checked. It’s hit-and-miss, but don’t risk not having a proper pass; they will write you a ticket. And those tickets are a lot more than a two dollar pass.
Pro tip: Get a travel passport holder that goes around your neck. You can find them in the luggage section of department stores.
While riding:
- The engine is in the back of the bus. Not a very good place for carrying on a conversation with a friend, but it’s warm!
- Pay attention to which direction the train is going before you sit down. Riding backward can be sick-making if you are prone to motion sickness!
- Keep the disabled seating available. The front center-facing seats of buses and the first seats facing the train doors should be yielded to the handicapped and the elderly. And to pregnant women.
- If you are unsure about where or when a bus is stopping, ask the driver! Obviously the driver knows their schedule. Just don’t distract them too much.
- Don’t yap on your phone excessively. We don’t want to hear your conversation.
- Set your phone to vibrate. You may think your ring tone is cool, but no one else does.
- Share a seat. While it’s nice to have a whole bench seat to yourself, others need a place to sit too. Put your belongings in your lap or on the floor.
- Have fun. There’s plenty of people from all walks of life, and many are characters. It’s one of my favorite places to people watch!
Metro really is a viable means of transportation. Obviously it’s not going to work for everyone everywhere, but it does work for a very large majority of people in the St. Louis area. By the way, did you know that public transit is going to be on the April ballot? Yep, and it needs your vote! Please go here to learn more about it. Also, Metro is getting into social media, which rocks! Check out @STLMetro and @STLTransit on Twitter. Fan Metro on Facebook. And for more info on Metro, check out http://nextstopstl.org.








I had a conversation with a friend of mine this morning. He lives in Europe. I told him that I was knitting, and he said that knitting was a very large part of their country’s lifestyle. So important, in fact, that it is taught in school. So we talked back and forth about homemaking classes and such in school, and he said that they have whole schools dedicated to teaching homemaking. That got me to thinking… Why don’t we have schools like this? Required classes in school or some kind of prep school to teach teens and young adults basic life skills? While you may scoff at this, there are many, many people that enter the adult world without these living skills. My poor husband, bless him, is one of these people. So, using him as a model, I will relate how people are unleashed into the world without knowledge.
Here’s a small list of things every adult should know how to do:
Okay, so I didn’t have any peas. But this was TOTALLY delicious.
