Annapolis Capital Punishment

We are pleased to present our guest columnist Andrew Waldman who provides his reflections on Annapolis with an emphasis on transportation, quality of life and related issues:

I’d like to take some time to reflect on what seems to be a very important part of my life as a new Annapolitan--commuting.

When I started thinking about commuting from Annapolis to downtown D.C. months ago I was convinced that I’d want to drive. Driving gave me the advantage of showing up and leaving whenever I wanted. This seemed to me like the freedom I’d always had living in Ohio, a place where it takes only 20 minutes to drive 20 miles.

My commute to my new job was supposed to be just 25 miles from door-to-door according to Google Maps. That translates to 38-41 minutes of driving. I figured that I could bet on about 45 minutes per day in D.C. traffic.

My bet was not far off – I typically made it to work in 45-50 minutes and back home in just a little more time. But what I didn’t bet on was all the other junk that comes with driving.

I won’t delve into the monetary costs of driving –gas prices or car registration fees, for example – because we all experience much of the same when it comes to that. I may do that in a later columns, but what I found remarkable about my commute was that I was arriving to work tired and leaving exhausted. My hands were sweaty from clenching my steering wheel when I ended my drives. I felt like less of a human every day.

Irritability, anger and impatience are three traits you develop by driving in the D.C. Metro area. These were things I rarely experienced while driving in rural Ohio, where the roads are wide and you share them with Amish buggies. But once I did the drive to D.C. a few times, I decided I’d better think about new ways to get to work.

One alternative was moving inside the WMATA (Metro) radius. Costs, however, were too high. Another was to venture onto a bus run by Dillon’s Bus under contract from MTA, which my girlfriend’s mother alerted me to just after I moved here. I initially shrugged that idea off, believing my ability to get to work faster was more important.

But that all changed on an October morning when my car was in the shop. I had no choice but to catch the Dillon’s 950 from the Naval Academy stadium. I paid my $4.25 and got to reading a book while some other driver toiled over the terrible traffic.

I had to do this for a few days, and when I finally returned to my auto commute, I dreaded it even more. Not only was I stressed from the traffic, but I had tasted the stress-free fruit borne from the non-driving-to-work commuter tree.

Then my luck improved even more. My employer offered me a subsidy to help pay for transit. Of course I took it. Now, I save lots of money on gas (not driving 300 miles a week has that effect on the wallet) and I get to enjoy reading, listening to music, or work--or even write columns for Annapolis Capital Punishment.

I admit that there are a few things I wish were done differently on the MTA buses. I wish they accepted the SmarTrip card system used by WMATA, instead of cash, and I wish more of them made the local stops (there’s also a tendency for drivers to show up at local stops late in the morning. I haven’t figured this out yet), but so far, I’ve got no serious complaints. The stress-free life I lead on my one-and-a-half hours on a bus each day far outweigh the costs of driving on the roads.

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