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May 10, 2000

Pacifica to Monterey! Via Oakland?

The most serious problem with public transportation is no one who can avoid it wants to use it. Some don't drive. Some can't drive. Most who have a choice prefer to drive.

Most people who drive prefer to drive alone, or with friends or members of their own household. They prefer their own vehicle for purely rational reasons. It's more efficient. Cars get you to your destination most expeditiously. It's more pleasant. Bus seats tend to be cramped or unpadded. If you drive alone, radios or tape decks play what you want to hear, at the volume you prefer, or you can turn them off at will. Lone drivers can smoke, or as I prefer, not smoke, in either case without asking permission of anyone.

It comes down to choice. When I drive, I choose when I want to leave. I go there at my own speed, within reason. (I notice D.A. Jim Fox is prosecuting a Polynesian tea drinker for, among other things, going only 55 miles an hour one particular early morning. If 55 is too slow for Jim Fox, I'm in real trouble a lot of the time. Of course this isn't the first time I've had reason to think Jim Fox sometimes uses poor judgment.) I choose my own route. If I choose to go to Yosemite from Pacifica via Monterey and Fresno, I'm allowed to do so. And of course, if I'm in some parts of California, I can choose any kind of program I like on the local radio stations, provided I prefer rock or country music, or Rush Limbaugh/Mike Reagan/Gordon Liddy/Art Bell. Thus the value of a tape deck in the interests of mental health.

All this came up recently when Lydia wanted to go to Monterey for a convention. The plan was I would drive down with her on a Friday morning, enjoy some of the amenities of the Monterey area Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the two of us would connect for some events, and we would enjoy a pleasant return trip along Highway One.

I've told hundreds of people how to do this when I was weekend man at the Chamber of Commerce. It's 105 miles, or about a 2.5 hour drive. You take Cabrillo Highway through Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, Moss Landing, and so to Monterey. I usually suggested taking the third Monterey exit, Fremont St., to Camino El Estero, with a right turn to the Monterey Visitors Center, always a helpful place.

At the last minute, I couldn't leave Friday morning. I decided to follow in a Greyhound bus. At 10:30 Saturday morning I drove to Colma BART, got off at Montgomery station at 11:40, walked a couple of blocks to First and Mission, bought a ticket ($16.70), got on the bus at 12:15.

We started across the Bay Bridge, which worried me enough I checked with the driver to make sure I was on the right bus. He reassured me. We stopped at the Oakland bus station where we were invited to stretch our legs for 10 or 15 minutes. The bus then proceeded down 880, stopped at Hayward, and arrived in San Jose at about 2:45, before passing through Los Gatos, then stopping at Santa Cruz and Watsonville, before arriving at Monterey at 4:35. Luckily I was permitted to leave the bus in downtown Monterey only a five or 10 minute walk from the convention hotel. Elapsed time: over six hours.

Will I take a bus to Monterey again? Not likely, unless I'm on a charter with friends and the bus is part of the package.

Paul Azevedo, just like many of those in charge of public transit, enthusiastically recommends buses and trains... for other people. His e mail address is Paul@thereactor.net

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