February 4, 2025
Public Transport and Connection
People often complain about seattle public transportation, both the busses and the light rail. Sometimes the busses don’t show up on time, and the light rail only travels along north and south, but I love it. I love arriving at the airport and being able to sit on the light rail for the entire ride to u-district. I love the freedom of reaching almost anywhere in the city via bus, even if it takes over twice as long as a car. I think this appreciation comes from growing up in an area with zero public transportation. To reach anywhere in Nashville I have to drive, it took me over 45 minutes to reach my school and twenty for the nearest grocery store. I had a friend who would laugh every time I said i was going ‘into town’, but that’s genuinely what it was, it always felt like an excursion, an event, to go anywhere . I believe this is where my love of public transportation comes from.
Visiting new cities the metro is always what i look for, when I think of my trips to New York City or Boston or Chicago some of my first thoughts are of the subway systems. As strange as it may be, I think Bengaluru will be the same, I suppose that’s just the civil engineer in me.
The first time I rode the metro here was during the scavenger hunt activity. To say I was overstimulated that day would be an understatement. I was drained, hungry, and nauseous; but as soon as the hint told us to take the metro I brightened up. After quickly finding the right stop and buying the tickets one of our BMS guides asked if we knew what direction we were going, I immediately responded ‘white-something’ and she looked at me surprised. She was impressed I knew to look for the last stop for the name and asked if i’d been on the metro before. I responded no, but I was proud that metro knowledge translate not only across countries, but across the world.
As I stood on the metro last week coming back from a climbing session I wondered why I liked it so much. My arm was stuck at a funny angle, the only way for me to stand was with a random suitcase between my legs, a grown man was breathing directly on the back of my neck, and with each stop as we approached the purple green line intersection a new wave of people entered the car. I kept telling myself it couldn’t get more crowded, then i would be pushed and find some new strangers body pressed against some part of me. I grimaced as the man behind me let out an exceptionally deep breath, and a women in front of me noticed.
She was almost a foot shorter than me and had no less than three armpits within inches of her face. But she offered me a genuine smile and spoke in broken english, reassuring me that at the next stop many people would get off. Sure enough, in less than a minute half the train, including myself, got off and moved as a herd toward the green line.
As I viciously rubbed the back of my neck, trying to remove the lingering feeling of a strangers breath, I made the mental note to buy a month pass for the metro, or whatever they offer in that vein. Regardless of my slightly less than enjoyable ride for a few minutes, I still love the metro. I love entering a train and appearing in a completely new area of the city, I love the AC it has and the fantastic people watching it offers. I love the interconnectivity it brings to cities and the freedom that comes with it. Like anything, there are things to be improved upon, such as the displacement its infrastructure causes and inaccessibility to large parts of the city. But I believe public transportation is necessary to bring a city closer together, maybe not as physically close as I felt in that moment, but the over arching closeness accessibility provides.
By,
Stella