A day without the T

[mangosteen]

Two weeks ago, I canceled my monthly parking pass at the garage near my workplace, and started taking public transit (this being Boston, it's the T) into work every day. It's obviously cheaper (no monthly parking fee, no gas, no tolls, no risk of car accident), although it does take a bit longer (40 vs. 15 minutes each way). However, with no train changes, and getting on at the end of the line such that I actually get a seat even at rush hour, it's a pretty optimal commute.

The main thing I noticed is that I read more. More specifically, that I read at all. For all that I spend practically all of my work time, and part of my home time staring at text on a screen, I've found that I don't really read all that much. This changed as soon as I took the T to work. I get on the train to go to work, and out comes the book. Likewise on the way home. Indeed, when I have some spare time before going to bed, I start reading again, because I'm in the frame of mind to do so.

Just Finished Reading:
"Suburban Nation" by Zybek - more suburban sprawl analysis

Currently Reading:
"How The Hebrew Language Grew" by Horowitz - analysis of the Hebrew language and its historical structure
"The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" by Covey - professional development (more about it some other time)

Fast forward to yesterday. In anticipation of plans later in the evening where it would be useful to have vehicular transport, I took my car instead of the T. Driving seemed to be a very odd, almost baroque kind of process. I was getting in this contraption, and manipulating various levers and pedals to get it to move toward my destination. It seemed like a lot of resources being spent to get one person to their workplace. I now have a better handle on that "dissociated" feeling, except in this case it was me being dissociated from my car. I understand "fahrvergnugen", and the ability to meld with a car in a full-on driving experience. This was the opposite.

I also didn't read. Not on the way to work, not on the way back home, not once I got home. I just didn't feel like it. It appears that driving home is a lot more mentally draining for me than I first thought. As I have been reading more, I've been writing more, and thinking more in general. It's bizarre to think that driving and using a car is an anti-intellectual activity for me, but that might be the case.

A day without the T is a day without reading.
Or writing.
Or thought.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

have you seen "repo man"?

the weird older guy says
"nah, i don't drive, man. driving makes you stupid."

"the more you drive, the stupider you get"

[cthulhia]

I think, but, I haven't watched it in years.

I may have a T commute contract soon, and I am looking forward to getting some reading done.

Re: "the more you drive, the stupider you get"

[magid.livejournal.com]

I know what I was quoting now - a friend sent me a "letter" on tape that included a review of the movie, and this was his paraphrasing of the line, which I've heard more times than the original...

[rmd.livejournal.com]

"the more ya drive, the less intelligent ya are."

i'm hoping to end up with a job where i can reasonably use the T to commute to work *exactly* for that chance to read during the commute.

[gingicat]

One of my regrets with taking buses is that I can't read on a bus -- I get carsick.

Lately I've been coming home, logging into IRC in case someone wants to reach me (ircle "beeps" me for provate msgs), and curling up in the living room with a book. It just works.

Look on the bright side...

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

...you got to visit me last night. :)

reading vs. driving

[cos]

For several years I did most of my reading on the T, busses, or while waiting for busses. I was constantly going from place to place. The circumstances changed, particularly my job, and I got a car. Reading dropped out of my life, and it took me over a year to find new space for it. That space was made, interestingly, by driving:

I'd packed my life so full of things that I'd been spending a very significant amount of time getting from place to place - on the order of 30+ hours a week, literally. Because of this, I was used to always going on to the next thing, never having any leeway in between. When I got home, it was late, and I slept, unless there was something I had to do. Having a car cut my travelling time to something like 5 hours a week, because suddenly I was able to go from place to place whenever I wanted, and arrange things in a convenient order based on logical considerations having nothing to do with which bus line runs from where to where at what time, connecting to what. Still, it took me a long time to get into the habit of using that extra space in my life to find time to read more.

The flip side of reading less when I started driving, was that I could now listen to music as I travelled, especially on weekend trips outside the city, which I started making a lot more of. I didn't listen to music at home. I started seriously listening to music when I got to college, and pretty much the only time I spent at "home" was when I was sleeping, so I listened to music while in bed. I spent much more time at WBRS than in my room, and that's where I did most of my listening. Then, I dated Katy, who had a hard time sleeping with music, so over the years I did that less and less, which was okay, because I was still at WBRS all the time.

It happens that I got my drivers license on the same month as I moved out of Waltham, after seven years living there. So, just as I started spending a lot less time at WBRS due to living in another town, I started driving, and shifted some music listening time from WBRS to the car. Which displaced the reading time, but created space in my life to fit it in elsewhere.

So now, I drive a lot, I read a lot, and I listen to music a lot. But I don't ride the T very much anymore.