Thursday, April 2, 2009

Carbon Fast for Lent: Get on the Bus

DAY 36 – WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL
“Travel light. Think before you drive: cycle, walk the school run, share lifts with colleagues, use public transport. Find out more about cycle routes in the UK at www.sustrans.org.uk. [And find out more about planning public transit in the U.S. at publictransportation.org]”



Have you taken public transit lately? Times have changed — it may not be what you think! One improvement since the days of the
omnibus: better real-time tracking. Our local system has just launched a Transit Tracker that lets one get real-time info on where a bus is on a map and when one can expect it to arrive. Unfortunately this isn’t integrated with Google Transit, but I hope Madison Metro will move in that direction soon. (Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine, and Appleton are already onboard.) I used Google Transit extensively the last time I was in Chicago — it was very handy for figuring out the next bus no matter where I was in the city.

Today’s mitzvah: In 2008, American public transit ridership was the highest in more then 50 years. Help make 2009 another record-breaking year. Visit Public Transit Takes Us There for public transit options in your own community.

Image: G.W. Joy, Bayswater Omnibus, 1895. Collection of the Museum of London.

1 comment:

Jen R. said...

Pretty picture! I love the way you can see out the omnibus's window. Bayswater never looked so good :-)