For some time I have been trying to become greener.  I have tried to do my part for the environment by recycling and conserving energy by replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescents.  I have even given up bottled water to reduce the number of plastic bottles I discard. 

For a long time, I had seriously been considering public transportation.  After all, I live on the bus route that goes straight to my place of employment, and several times a day I hear the bus rumbling down the street in front of my house.  So when I woke up one morning to discover snow-covered streets, I decided that would be the perfect day to leave my car in the garage and take the bus to work.

I decided to dress extra warm because of the wait on the street corner and I wasn’t sure how warm the bus would be.  So I donned my extra sweater, coat, boots, hat and gloves and trudged through the snow to the corner.  It was very cold, and it was snowing heavily.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long before the bus arrived.  Being new to public transportation, I wasn’t sure what was expected of me as I boarded the bus for the first time.  I knew that I needed 75 cents in exact change, but beyond that I was clueless.  The bus driver must have sensed my uncertainty because he casually pointed to the coin slot and asked, “Transfer?”  After depositing my coins and nearly tripping on my way to a seat, the bus was once again on its way, and I reached my destination within ten minutes of boarding.  So I thought, “This is easy, I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner.”

However, going home was not to be as simple.  I got off work at 5:00, and a few minutes later the bus was scheduled to arrive at the bus stop conveniently located in the parking lot.  When the bus arrived, I learned that there are incoming and outgoing buses and, of course, this was not the bus I needed.  So I waited…  In the meantime, concerned co-workers stopped to offer me a ride home.  When I explained that I was waiting on the bus, some looked at me as if I had lost my mind and asked, “On purpose?”  Others said, “Good for you, I wonder if the bus goes by my house.”  Either way I thanked them and declined their offers.

Because it was Friday, it didn’t take long for the parking lot to empty and I was still waiting for my bus.  And I waited… At this point, I was questioning my decision to turn down my co-worker’s offers.  After another twenty minutes, my outgoing bus arrived.  It turns out the bus driver, in an attempt to get as close to the curb as possible for an elderly customer, got stuck in a snow bank.  All was forgiven, and he dropped me almost at my doorstep so I didn’t have to walk in the snow. However, as I unlocked my front door, I wondered if he did so because I was another of his “elderly” customers.  Surely not!!

Even though I decided to take public transportation because of my dread of driving in the snow, I can also help the environment by not driving my car every where.  Using public transportation saves 1.4 billion gallons of gas a year, the equivalent of gassing up 300,000 cars.  I have taken the bus to work every day since, and with bus pass in hand, I now feel like I’m a pro.  With the exception of the long wait to go home the first day, my experience with public transportation has been a good one.  And I have completed another small step toward reducing my impact on the environment.