Places In Common

First and foremost, I’m going to have to admit that walking was by far the best experience of the four different ways I traveled. Not necessarily because the surroundings are readily available for you to interact with but because by walking you have a longer amount of time to interact with everything you see. In Nato Thompson’s reading he states, “The art of the pedestrian has a longstanding relationship to the city.” In his reading he goes on saying how walking was the “rage” of the cities. I can completely appreciate the opportunities given when walking instead of other forms of transportation, this is also stated in Nato Thompson’s reading. Thompson states, “A sign of refinement and cultural reflection went hand in hand with a propensity for the stroll.” There are many aspects of life and cultural within your surroundings that you completely miss out on through other forms of transportation. I feel that this is why I enjoyed walking the most.

The bus was the first type of transportation I tried for this assignment. It was about 7:45 on Friday evening and I’ll have to admit I was a bit excited to take the bus considering I can count fingers for the amount of times that I’ve ridden on it. Viewing my route at night was considerably different from the first time I traveled it during the day. The amount of information I could see was muted without light however, at times there were glowing lights to present the information I had originally seen the prior day. There were quite a few people on the bus that night. I notice a few others looking back at me wondering what I’m doing observing them. One guy on the bus offered me a piece of gum, I said no thank you.

The second mode of transportation I took was my roommates bike. Considering I have never ridden a bike in a big city before this terrified me. However, I enjoyed my route because the roads were less busy. I enjoyed it for the most obvious reason and the fact that this gave me more intimate time with my surroundings. I took this route at about 10:15 on Saturday morning and the weather was absolutely perfect. It’s different viewing the route from the street like a car, but not. I can see everything, I notice every detail about the parked cars I’m passing. Almost like I could finger out a dent or already feel how shiny a car is just by looking at it from on my bike.

The third mode of transportation I took was the most obvious one, my car. I figured since I normally use this as my mode of transportation it would be interesting to see how I think on this route. It’s exactly 3:18 on Sunday afternoon and the weather is okay but aside all I feel most comfortable in this route now. Possibly because I have already taken this route three other times this week or maybe because I’m in my most used form of transportation. I have the windows down so I can feel a breeze against my hair. I see less detail from my car and if I wanted to stop and interact with something it would be almost impossible. I’ve realized people are less friendly in their cars, like they are in a protective shield of metal. It’s like they don’t care because “you can’t see them”.