time and distance

— पाच हजार त्र्याण्णव — Last night I took myself to see Encanto, the new Disney Animated Feature, at the Regal Cinema because it just had the most workable showtime, at 5:45. Shobhit assumed I would just go straight there, and I really went back and forth as to whether to do that. But, then I decided to run a little experiment: how quickly would I get home if I walked from the office to Seattle Center; caught the Monorail to Westlake Station; went down to catch Light Rail; took that to Capitol Hill Station, then walked home from there? This is basically a hybrid walking/transit commute itinerary, as it involves a thirteen-minute walk to the Monorail, and a nine-minute walk home from Capitol Hill Station. Both the Monorail and Light Rail, each leg going one mile, takes all of two minutes, but it does take several minutes just to get from the Monorail station down to the Light Rail platform at Westlake Center. Turns out the whole process got me home at about 5:04, meaning getting home this way is longer than riding my bike but shorter than walking the entire way—and certainly shorter than taking the bus—though it's closer to biking than to walking. It's a nice time-saving measure if I am pressed for time but still want to get about twenty minutes of walking in. So, it goes like this: *Walk from office to Seattle Center Monorail Station: 13 minutes
*Monorail ride: 2 minutes
*Getting down from Monorail on third floor of Westlake Center down to Light Rail platform below Westlake Center (elevator or stairs down to upper level of Downtown Transit Tunnel; transfer either to other elevator or staircase down to train platform): ~3 minutes
*Light Rail from Westlake to Capitol Hill: 2 minutes
*Walk from Capitol Hill Station to home: 9 minutes Now, add just about minutes to that total to account for waiting for trains to arrive, board and leave again, and you get to roughly 34 minutes total. I actually left the office yesterday at 4:28 and got onto the Monorail, which arrived luckily just as I was walking up—and those run every ten minutes—and I was on it by 4:41. I had about three minutes cushion there, though, as it doesn't actually leave until 4:41 on schedule. Note to self for future reference. In any case, it was 5:04 when I arrived at my building. Compare to all these options for commuting home from work: *Biking: about 25 minutes
*Walk to Monorail, to Westlake Station, to Capitol Hill Light Rail Station, walk home from there: 34 minutes
*Bus, catching #8 from 2nd & Denny (~2 block walk from work) up Denny Way to the stop at 15th Ave E & John (4 blocks walk to home): about 30 minutes, give or take depending on traffic
*Bus, catching the D Rapid Ride downtown from 2nd & Denny (~2 block walk from work) to 3rd & Pine, then the #11 from there to 15th & Pine half a block from my building: about 42 minutes, give or take depending on traffic
*Walk the entire way: ~55 minutes Now, when it comes to bussing, it seems obvious the #8 is the way to go, except that Denny Way is often a nightmare during rush hour—especially before the pandemic—and is often insanely delayed. Granted, going deeper into downtown is not always much better, but it usually is better, plus I have a plethora of other buses to catch downtown if the D happens to be delayed or off schedule, whereas going up Denny the 8 is the only option. I do like to minimize transit transfers as much as I can, just to minimize potential for delays. Transferring between the Monorail and Light Rail is no big deal though because neither of those are beholden to traffic, so, barring massive influxes of riders for some huge event or a breakdown, notable delays on either one are far less likely. In any case, I love having found this hybrid option as of yesterday. (It's not an option the other direction, coming to work in the morning, because I like to start work at 7:30 and the Monorail doesn't even start running until 7:30.) So, I may do the Monorail/Light Rail route again today, since I have that call with Apple Support scheduled for 5:30 and that will get me home a bit earlier before that. Side note: I will likely take transit to Olympia Christmas Eve while Shobhit is working, with him driving down either later Christmas Eve (unlikely) or on Christmas morning. I looked up schedules this morning and discovered that Thurston County's Intercity Transit is in the middle of a "five-year demonstration" period of "Zero Fare," since the start of 2020. I guess they did this as their most efficient means of connecting riders to surrounding transit agencies which use Orca Cards which can't be scanned on any Intercity Transit equipment—instead of installing new equipment, they just decided to subsidize (or really, literally replace) public transit fares with local sales tax revenue. This news really endeared me to the people of Thurston County, honestly, and I think basically all public transit should be paid for this way. People who can't afford a car should not also be prevented from using transit to access essential services because they can't even afford exorbitant bus fares. In any case, this also means I can get all the way to Olympia again at no extra cost at all: scan my Orca card on the Sound Transit express 594 to the State Route 512 Park and Ride; then no fare needed at all for the Intercity Transit express 620 the rest of the way to the Olympia Transit Center. I won't have to make sure I have three bucks in cash in my wallet anymore, hooray! — पाच हजार त्र्याण्णव — — पाच हजार त्र्याण्णव — We still don't know exactly how we'll spend Christmas Eve; I just know that Dad and I agreed on our last phone call that Christmas Eve is part of the family holiday, which we were unable to incorporate during lockdowns last year, and I don't want to miss experiencing it again. Shobhit never wants to go down the night before Christmas, and I consider this a workable compromise. It's the same thing we did in 2019, also because he had to work. If he had the day off, he might be more open to it—especially with the possibility of stopping by Danielle's on the way down, which I obviously can't do taking transit. (I did stop by Gabriel and Lea's on Christmas Eve in 2019, only because I could take Light Rail right to their Columbia City apartment, but they now live in a house near Federal Way, not only nowhere near any Light Rail stations, but some five miles just from I-5. One day we'll stop there on Christmas Eve on our way to Olympia, but all transit options aside, even that won't be until we are well past the pandemic and they are again comfortable with having guests from outside their household. I think I also forgot to mention, back when I wrote about the phone call with Dad, that he talked about wanting to do a family get-together for New Year's Day—something the extended family used to do annually, back in the day, largely in conjunction with Grandpa McQuilkin's birthday being January 1, and Dad said he misses doing it. Not long after that conversation, Sherri created a Facebook invite for the New Year's Day get-together. I will admit to having some moderately mixed feelings about that one, depending on how "extended" the family will be that comes—we have some moronic, militant anti-vaxxers in the extended family. But, I know Dad would really like me to be there, so I RSVPed that I will come. I'll spend a lot of time outside on the back patio if I have to, I guess. Shobhit will almost certainly work that day, in which case maybe for that one he will just bus to work that day and let me take the car; I don't intend to stay overnight for that event, only for Christmas Eve. — पाच हजार त्र्याण्णव — [posted 12:37 pm]