A feature of having moved to a new place is that my commute is not as simple as it was. Where I would previously hop on a subway train and trundle twenty minutes directly to my work site, these days I am in a sort of multi-bus chaos nexus two to three mornings a week. Here is the hierarchy of options for my new commute:

Option One: The 19 bus + a ten minute walk
Use If: The 19 is not egregiously early
Benefits: A relatively chill bus (at least in the early hours) plus a straight, flat, kind of pleasant walk that starts the day right
Challenges: The 19 is very often egregiously early

Option Two: The 49 bus + the 22 bus
Use If: The 19 was egregiously early
Benefits: Both buses go pretty regularly; the 49 takes a more direct route than the 19; the 22 obviates the need for a walk
Challenges: The 49 is distinctly more feral-feeling than the 19, as a higher-frequency bus with accordingly higher ridership; the 22 takes a long route that accrues a lot of people before it reaches my stop, meaning it gets very busy; the transfer point between buses is 16th and Mission, which requires facing up to a troublingly high degree of human suffering first thing in the morning

Option Three: A fifteen minute walk + the free workplace shuttle
Use If: The 19 was egregiously early and there is fuckery on either of the 49 or 22 routes
Benefits: Free!
Challenges: The fifteen minute walk is through the Tenderloin, which is not prohibitive, but which does require me to choose my route pretty carefully in order to avoid disturbing people having a far worse morning than me; the shuttle timings are woefully inconvenient for any bus connections that might make this option feel more viable; there’s a non-zero risk of running into a coworker on the shuttle and having to make conversation instead of my preferred morning commute activity (zoning out while listening to music)

Option Four: Panic and summon an Uber
Use If: The morning has gone extremely wrong
Benefits: Direct to work at a swift clip
Challenges: Expensive and probably unethical

I’ve never yet had to resort to Option Four, but I do keep it on the table just in case.

I was not really a frequent bus user before the move; I prefer trains for their faster pace and their significantly more relaxed atmosphere. That being said, I’m learning to appreciate the humble bus. Here are some things I enjoy about my new commute, whatever form it might take:

• Familiar faces. There’s a rotating cast of regulars on my usual 19 bus, from the guy who always wears the same charity hoodie to the woman who keeps a paper towel between her hand and the pole she’s clutching. This didn’t really happen to me on the train, and it’s proven surprisingly nice to see the same people going through the motions of their own routines in parallel with me.

• Live-action community care. The bus is a weirdly good place to see people sharing space responsibly. If someone gets on in a wheelchair (all of my bus routes go through some part of the Tenderloin, so this happens quite a bit), nobody has to be asked to move out of the foldable seats. If a parent gets on with a kid, or an older person gets on board, someone will always give up their seat. If it’s absolutely jam-packed, people will wiggle into whatever space they can find to let as many people as possible board. And when it’s time for someone to get off, people are remarkably good at moving out of their way.

• Actually seeing the city. Much of my previous train commute was underground. Being on a bus means seeing San Francisco at street level, and having multiple commute options means seeing a variety of parts and places. I’ve developed a new fondness for the old industrial buildings in SoMa, a place I don’t typically have cause to go. There’s a flower shop called Hoogasian Flowers that’s painted bright yellow, which always makes me smile. And the ghost signs! The ghost signs are great.
  

  

• The thrill of navigation. Learning a new bus system is tricky. Actually using it is trickier still, particularly when you are not “from America” and you still get slightly confused about which side of the road means travelling in which direction. But like most tricky things, it is rewarding to be able to get it right.

• Supporting public infrastructure. Every time I pay my bus fare (which I do every time, despite the fact that it is only sporadically enforced) I get to feel good about contributing to MUNI, which helps mitigate car traffic and exhaust fumes in my city, and which keeps San Francisco accessible to as many people as possible. Not every city has our level of public transportation infrastructure! We are lucky and we should do what we can to support it. (This was also true of taking the train, but shhh.)

This is not a particularly profound update, but I have been thinking about public transit a lot recently and so I hope you enjoy this small accretion of thoughts on the matter. Try taking the bus if you can, I guess! Though at least in the States I know that is often easier said than done.

xoxo

W