Bus Tunnel Day

The bus tunnel opened this week!
Last week I was totally excited to be using the tunnel -- 5 stops instead of 10... no street traffic & hopefully a much faster commute!

Well... its not that great.

The buses have to go 30 miles an hour in the tunnels, which is way slower than they used to go, and today the lights weren't working properly so my bus got stuck for like 5 minutes. Aside from being underground, its really not any faster than it was before. There are still the same restrictions on bikes -- you can only transfer them on and off the bus at the first stop, the International District station, and the last stop, the Convention Place station. That doesn't really bother me, because those two stops are where I want to put my bike on or off anyway.

On the way in, there is an escalator to get out of the tunnel, which is a pretty easy way to get a bike out of the tunnel. But on the way HOME, I have to carry my bike down the stairs. OK, honestly its not that big of a deal, and I saw some guy carrying his bike down the stairs today -- but I'm already writing a post complaining about the tunnel, so I might as well complain about that too :)

Other than the tunnel -- I'm really getting this commute thing figured out!
I use this tiny camel back backpack, which holds a magazine, my ZUNE, my 'purse', and any small random things I need, like my slip-on shoes, or the travel pants I wear on the bus. Travel pants you ask? well, you see, I feel totally uncomfortable sitting on the bus, wearing just bike shorts when I ride in to work - but I have this pair of super light zip off pants that coordinate with my team gear. So I wear the zip off pants and either roll up the right leg, or zip it off to ride into work. On the way home, the bike shorts don't bother me so much -- so I roll up the 'travel pants' and put them in my backpack.

Oh, I should explain about my 'purse' -- its not really a purse, its a travel bag that holds my wallet, bus tickets, cell phone, a checkbook, and a pen or two. Sometimes I stick my ZUNE inside too. It works GREAT -- It maybe looks a little wierd carying it around for shopping, but hey - so does wearing bike gear at the grocery store.