My two and a half year old daughter and I went for a quick two hour trip today. I had to go back to the office to get some things I had left behind. Later on tonight I am going to try my hand at creating some odd music for my secret podcast, and I needed the microphone cable.
So, we left the house, went to the office, went to McGuffey Park, and stopped in for a quick snack and beverage at Court Square Tavern. The total trip was about two and a half hours, and my wife is grateful that I was able to give her and the baby some rest.
The most excellent thing about this adventure was that we were able to do the whole thing on the bus. We left our house, and within five minutes were sitting on the number 4-B to downtown. Ten minutes later, I'm walking up the very steep hill on High Street to the park, where we played in the sand for about forty minutes. The park still looks pretty good, but the hill leading up to the slide appears to be eroding a little bit.
Then we walked to Court Square, I picked up my things, and then off we went for some pretzels at the tavern. My daughter sat on a phone book while we were at the bar. Only one other customer was in there. He's child-less and was asking me all of these questions which got increasingly strange. At 5:43, we left and headed down to the transit center. I am very much looking forward to the new notice board they will have there which will alert you to upcoming buses. Today, I asked the trolley driver if we had missed the last bus to Fry's Spring, and he was nice enough to call the dispatcher to see. Thankfully, we were in time, and we were dropped off at the end of our road again.
The system may not be the world's best, but it works for those of us who live on one of the bus lines. That's an awful lot of people. When I ride the bus, I feel like I'm in a city. The town seems a lot bigger, and more interesting. I'm on the same roads I'd be on if I were driving, but yet, I get to look at all of the details. I get to think about what this place could look like, what it might look like, how it might grow. 4B currently rides through the major growth corridors: Water Street to West Main, through the expanding UVa medical complex, past the South Lawn Project, down JPA. The area is transforming pretty rapidly, as there are major new buildings planned for that whole stretch. In my job I'm relatively up on what's happening, but it always catches me by surprise to see the progress of the South Lawn Project. Someone should be filming dystopian science fiction movies on the unfinished site.
I'd like to do that. I would like to raise $2500 to purchase a starter video production suite, so I could mess around with things like that. Who's up for this idea?
4 comments:
Urrrgh, I wish they'd restore the line to my neighborhood (Greenbriar). Even if they just ran it up to CHS.
How about a grant for the video set-up?
There is funding in next year's budget for service to CHS, possibly via Park Street. Do you know why they canceled the service?
Not enough ridership is what I heard. It was canceled before we ever moved here.
I'll let you know if I see anything about the restoration of that service. I don't know what the best way to ask for new service would be.
I've only been riding the bus for the past year or so. It really does make a difference in the way I think about the size and scale of Charlottesville. It's nice to go without a car when you can.
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