For most of my life, I lived on Cape Cod, about 60 miles from Boston, and
my parents went there with me a few times every year. They always drove
and my father always complained about how bad the traffic was, but they
never went on the subway. I was vaguely aware of the rail lines because
we often drove past one where it became elevated and we also drove along a
light rail line in the middle of a street from time to time. I never knew
anyone who actually rode the subway and I tended to assume that it might
be dark and dangerous.
Around the time I was 17, I started to read some
books by the Worldwatch Institute and they had many discussions of how to
improve the environment. Some of them talked about building rail transit
lines in cities and encouraging people to ride bicycles and started to
think those were good ideas. When I was 19, I went away to college in the
western part of the state, about 180 miles from my parents place, and I
would ride the bus to visit them on long weekends. I quickly learned that
there was a school-home bus but it only ran once a day, but I could ride a
school-Boston and Boston-home bus and have choices of about 10 different
times. The only problem was that the two bus stations were in different
places, so I had to walk about 2 miles through the city. At that point, I
started thinking about how nice it would be if there was a faster way
across the city. Also, I started to notice how being in the bus stations
and riding the buses wasn't that pleasant.
A little while later, my
parents started letting me drive their car when I was home from school for
the summer, and I drove many places but I thought that driving in Boston
would be very difficult. Then a friend asked me if I would drive her to
Boston one day and she said that we could park in the suburbs 10 miles out
and take the subway. I did that and I was amazed at how great the subways
were. I would drive up there several times during the summer and ride all
around the city. I also learned how to take the subway between the two
bus stations. At that time, I became very interested in mass transit, and
I wanted to see the subway go farther away from the city, towards where I
lived. I then learned about the commuter rail and the mostly unused rail
line that went from the city to my home town, 60 miles away. The state
opened a commuter rail line 2/3 of the way there, but not until 1998, when
I had moved to California.
As I started riding the Boston subway a lot,
after 1991, I also wanted to learn more about rail lines in other cities,
and I started learning about the politics of mass transit. In 1995, when
I moved to 1000 Oaks, I quickly learned how transit outside certain parts
of LA was not very good, and how riding local transit buses wasn't nearly
as nice as rail lines. When I lived back east, I took intercity buses
from school to home, but I never rode any "local transit" buses in Boston.
Around 1993, I discovered the internet and I quickly started reading the
transit-oriented newsgroups. Through the newsgroups, I discovered Socata
and I asked them to mail me a sample newsletter, while I was still living
near Boston. I received it and I decided to join when I got to
California. Through them, I learned so much about transit in the LA area,
and about the politics of transit. Around that time, I started getting
interested in some related issues, like urban planning and zoning, and I
have read many books on those topics. I have now lived in California for
almost five years. I still ride my bicycle for some short trips and take
the bus or rail lines for longer ones, and I get rides from friends at
times, but I mostly ride transit. I am very impressed at how much Socata
has done and I have made some good friends through that groups. I have
also enjoyed trading information with some of the Socata members.