December 17, 2019: Home to Center to Mall to Mall

This is my second day this week of not driving. There are so many who can't afford to buy a car and I wish I could get rid of mine. It is so convenient to be able to get somewhere more quickly, but there are many personal benefits to trying to get away from my vehicle. 

This is my account from today as seen from Twitter and unspooled accordingly. The application gives me a chance to document my trip and edit the many typos that show up! 

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I have a momentary panic as I see a bus in the distance. I should have three more minutes to get to my stop! Thankfully it is a 6 and not the 4. This is first of tour bus trips I have planned today. Glad someone left me some food on this bench. Oh wait. It’s trash.

Someone responded on Twitter that this bench is way too close to the road. That may be. 

I had to cancel a 3:00 meeting because I can’t make it to that and a 1:30 for both without driving. I have a car but the point of this experiment is to keep going. It is inconvenient but it’s worth it to me to not drive. There is a bus system and I have learned to use it.

I love the way this building has been painted. It's a pasta shop I've not been to yet. 

Now on board the 8 bound for the Center on Hillsdale Drive. The development of the CODE building continues. How will the people who work there one day get to work?

I was hoping to get a shot that shows the big pit where the Main Street Arena used to be. Note that there's a facade for a building that is gone now. 

This is a street that is worth walking down if you want to see how natural systems coexist with the ones we have built. A passenger got off at the stop here. There is no crosswalk. There likely should be one. The system isn’t perfect but the intent is the thing.

Meadowcreek daylights along here, and is a hidden stream that flows. I want to take people down that road. 

Several passengers get off at Barracks Road while this bus continues on to Stonefield via Hillsdale. This stop is right outside the now-closed CVS. There are a lot of shops here in this center that has been here for over 60 years. We're about to drive through Seminole Square, which hasn't fared as well and now has a public road going through it. 

The driver is surprised when I get off at this stop with the Center in the distance. She tells me she will be coming back through after a U-turn. I didn’t know when to get off and I don’t mind the walk to the Center. 

When I get there, there is a bus shelter here but there's no route marker for the 8. 

Good thing to kick off my talk with the Center director!

This asphalt trail was built as part of the Hillsdale Drive Extension, which connects Rio Road and Hydraulic. This is a major component of the Places29 Master Plan. 

For some reason the 8 doesn’t stop here. The 7 (which adds five to itself on Sunday) does. In any case I am here and will have to take a 7 back home. I have a 3:30 meeting I hope to make. I am half an hour early. That’s what laptops are for.

I wonder how many people use this spot every day? I forgot to ask the Center director. 

I've only ever driven here before. The Center was formerly known as the Senior Center. I've spent many hours in here recording things for @cvillepodcast and for @cvilletomorrow and now I am here to find out how the next location in Belvedere can be connected to transit. 

The meeting is over and I am walking to Fashion Square Mall to catch an 11. I am at the intersection of Hillsdale and Greenbrier. I wrote a lot about this intersection which had been planned to have a traffic light but it was not yet warranted. The infrastructure is here for it in future when the time comes.

For a second I think I am in another community. The older part of Hillsdale looks so different on foot. In the distance I see a familiar sight though.

On this impromptu and unexpected urban exploration, I see an embankment and cross the street again. There is a set of new wooden steps and decide to investigate. Another stormwater pond? There is a bench that doesn’t look as new. This is open space but for who? I bet this looks beautiful in the spring.

On Twitter, someone said geese are the main users of this space. 

I am now at Fashion Square Mall. I have not been here since the day Notre Dame was on fire. I am disoriented. Malls like this send me back to being a kid. The first time I was in this building was in the mid 80s when my dad was on a business trip to Comdial.

If you look closely, you can see a Salvation Army bell ringer. 

With the holidays on, the place seems festive. There are many people here. A woman reads a book on one of the comfortable couches. There are no bookstores anymore, though. This is a civic space still. A commercial one, but a place people go. Mostly in cars.

It's a nice atrium. It's a nice space. With a little love, this could be something again. 

However it is possible to get here via bus. And people do. There are choices. I will come back on Saturday on the bus and do some Christmas shopping here. There are lots of sales. I dread the day but I will get things for my family. And it will make me happy. More normal.

The bus actually arrived earlier than this, but left right at as this reached 5. 

For now, though, I am on an 11 back downtown. I have never been on Rio Road East on a bus before. There are a lot more homes on this corridor than when I began this work in 2007. The 12 is now the only @RideWithCAT route I have not been on. 

I am seeing new things. The 11 turns left onto North Avenue. The bus lets off a passenger who boarded at Fashion Square on a bike. I delight in seeing a city neighborhood I have not seen for a while. I don’t know this route so it feels like a story I know the end to, but not how we get there. Fascinating.

I actually used to live in this neighborhood, but I've more or less forgotten that. That was for two or three months in 2004. 

I make it from one mall to the other mall in less than 20 minutes. That route worked very well. We must figure out how to persuade more people to try this out. It might could work for them! 

I do love riding the bus.