Jul
24
Rainy day but still should’ve ridden the bike
July 24, 2009 | Comments Off on Rainy day but still should’ve ridden the bike
Raining pretty hard this morning, so I took the T. The gf needed the car to drive to work, and my bike is just a little too nice to subject it to rain and dirt. There’s nothing like taking the green line B train a measly 1.7 miles to BC to make me realize how much better it is to commute by bicycle.
I live just steps away from the Warren St stop on the green line, which I thought (when moving into the place last year) would be great for being able to easily head outbound to work at BC, or inbound to downtown on weekends. Turns out, as many of you probably know, the green line B is next to useless if you need to get somewhere in less than 40 minutes. I can’t imagine depending on it every day.
So I headed to catch the train, but before I reach the corner a train pulls out and leaves. Whatever, it happens, I’m probably gonna end up waiting 10 minutes now, good thing I brought my iPod.
Okay, it has been 15 minutes now, and exactly 6 inbound trains have passed, and sweet I can see an outbound train on its way. I stepped out from the awning of the nearby apartment I used for shelter from the rain. Cool, the train is running express, and it doesn’t stop. Back to the awning I went.
10 minutes later comes the next train. This one will surely let me on. It does. Then it carries me up over the hill to the next stop, Washington St. Then the dreaded “this train is being taken out of service”. What? Well thanks for carrying me 1/5 of a mile, so now I’m just far enough away from home that I won’t walk back and just resort to riding my mountain bike in. In my opinion, being a little wet from a bike ride is not as bad as standing in the rain waiting for a train that may never come.
So I step onto the platform with the dozens of other people who have been carried just 2 or 3 stops from their origin. The ‘disabled’ train heads backwards down the tracks, so I figure it will take forever for another one to arrive. They can’t really pass each other, can they?
Takes about 10 minutes until another train comes. Express to Boston College, right on. Halfway there I hear the “this train is being taken out of service” message again! Luckily, it seems it was just a mistake, or maybe it was a really cruel joke.
Finally arrive at the BC stop, then proceed to hike the 1/2 mile across campus. What a terrible location for a train stop. And a terrible design. There is no real way to cross Commonwealth on foot there without jaywalking.
Total time to travel 2 total miles from apartment to BC: 45 minutes. That’s an average of 2.7 mph. I’m pretty sure I can walk that fast.
Total time to travel those 2 miles on my bike: ~8 minutes. 15 mph.
I’m going to get fenders.
