Getting There

Vallejo 6:40 a.m.

I played hookey Friday, which made this Monday all the more painful as I groaned my way out of bed at 5:30 a.m. Back to the gym this morning, so I’m here early again. Looks like this may become my new time of departure. Cold winds this morning and all night – they rattled our old house. I’m in the back seat of a dark blue 4-door Toyota Corolla. 30-something woman driver, dressed in a black sweatshirt and black trousers. She has her head in her cell phone as I get into the back seat and gives me a distracted good morning greeting. She puts away the phone and off we go with KBLK on the radio. What a great haircut she has! Very stylish short bob – it looks terrific. A Safeway bag with several boxes of Tampons lies on the back-seat floor; her black jacket on the seat next to me.

No chatting today. The side rear view mirror reflects the front seat passenger who is sitting very still staring straight ahead.

I like a bit of conversation, and also like some quiet time too, so I can read, text, blog, or just sit and collect my thoughts. But today we’re silent.

I read a recent article in the NY Times about the new cab sharing in NYC. The news story is at (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/want-to-share-a-cab-with-a-stranger/). This Sunday’s (March 7) Times included a column on the program, which officially began last Friday, from city critic Ariel Kaminer who tried out the program. It’s a good and funny story – read it if you have a moment. (“Sharing a Cab Ride is Hard Enough. But Words, Too?” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/nyregion/07critic.html?src=twr). Kaminer describes the oddness of being squeezed together in “100 cubic feet of space without speaking to one another”.

Ha – we do it all the time here in the casual carpool lane.

Light and fast traffic today. We whiz past the flowering pink and white fruit trees all abloom in time for the first day of Spring on Sunday.

We’re in San Francisco at 7:30 and I’m off to the weights and bikes at Club One.

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Vallejo 7:15 AM
It’s really pouring and I run to my ride. Another VW Sedan, a 4-door today. I realize once I’m seated in the back seat that it must be a smoker’s car. Cough, cough. The car smells bad.

The driver’s big black briefcase is on the back seat next to me. There’s a small re-cycling situation on the floor – a grouping of empty plastic water bottles and a few aluminum soda cans are in and around a square plastic box. The driver reaches around behind the seat and plunks an empty lime green plastic drinking glass into the container as we start our journey. He looks good in a rust-colored corduroy jacket and dark brown trousers. The front seat passenger is a handsome young islander looking guy in a great slightly damp trench coat – the kind with all the epaulets and belts and buttoned tabs. I see he’s carrying a bright red umbrella – a nice touch.

The driver must have a sore muscle. He periodically leans forward and pulls up his shoulder. I study his face in the rear view mirror and decide he looks a bit like a ravaged and very tired Michael Caine.

We’re off to a fast start, going 60 mph, passing the other 3 lanes of very slo-mo traffic, but the fun ends within a few miles and we’re crawling along with everyone else. The car pool lane is now as full as the other 3 lanes, which means that either there are many more carpoolers this morning (NOT!) or there are people cheating – single drivers sneaking over into our lane. But they’re safe today; in this downpour it’s hard to see who’s in a car. I don’t see the highway patrol out here, which is a break for the cheaters. The fine for being in the carpool lane with fewer than 3 people starts at over $300 and doubles and triples for repeated offenses.

KNBR Radio has a discussion going on about Senator Bunting from Virginia who is single-handedly blocking unemployment benefits for 100,000 people today. Perhaps his concern over spending money we don’t have is well-intentioned, but where was he when the war in Iraq was costing us over $200 million a day and dumping us into the mess we’re in now?

We’re moving slightly faster as we get into the last leg of the trip. It is really a deluge out here on the road. The car windows are all fogged over and the stale smell of cigarette smoke wraps around us like a mildewed blanket.

We slow down again at the final curve before the bridge, past the Eastshore State Park that runs 8 1/2 miles along the East Bay shoreline (see http://www.ebparks.org/parks/eastshore for the whole story on what is called the most outstanding achievement in the history of open space protection). Moving at only 5 mph past the marshes at the edge of the road, I can see skinny-legged sandpipers browsing through the grasses.

Here we go now moving quickly past the toll plaza’s 18 frozen lanes of gridlock and onto the bridge. The bridge is a soft gray tunnel of rain and fog, Alcatraz is barely visible out there in the Bay, and then the City’s landmarks begin to emerge – the Transamerica pyramid, the Bank of America monolith, Coit Tower. We’re finally here at 8:45 and I thank the driver, happily breath in some fresh air before maneuvering myself and umbrella to the bus stop.

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Vallejo 7:30 a.m.
It’s Friday light and I’m rolling down the freeway in the back seat of an Isuzu Trooper (SUV). Very good jazz tape is playing. Our driver with a diamond stud in his right ear, has on his Friday light sweats. The front seat passenger is dressed up a bit more in casual khakis and pullover sweater. We are moving! 70 mph in the carpool lane.

No-nonsense car interior with the only ornamentation a pine tree cutout air freshener emitting excessive fragrance. The driver has a large unopened bottle of Dasan water close at hand in the well between the front seats.

20 minutes later we approach the Bridge Toll area and whiz by in the carpool lane. The Toll plaza is a mess with 12 lanes backed up like a parking lot waiting to get through the toll gate. The 6 Fast Track lanes are moving slightly faster.

We arrive at the drop off corner in the city 40 minutes out of Vallejo. Whee! A great ride and the weekend starts in about 8 hours.

Filed under: Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Today's Commute | 1 Comment »