You Behind the Wheel
by Nina
Dedicated to Laura, who was my navigator (for a change).
I have lived most of my life in rural, sparsely populated areas. "Mass transportation" is non-existent. One needn't merge when entering the interstate. In the case that someone else is actually within your vicinity whilst entering the roadway - that person gets out of your way (as a common courtesy) because no one else is in their way.
It is different in Minneapolis/St Paul. In anticipation of having to navigate the city on a regular basis for CPE, I experimented with alternative transportation. I got out my trusty bike, Shera, and followed the river in the shortest bike-route path I could find. After an hour and forty minutes (and multiple breaks to revisit the map), I arrived, took a break, and turned around for home. Biking was not an option. I could not spend 3 hours a day on my bike. I was going to have to drive.
During my first two weeks of CPE I drove home a different way every time...I never seemed to be in the right lane, or would come across closed entrance ramps, or detours that I couldn't seem to follow, or one-way streets, or streets that curve away from where I wanted to go. I ended up driving multiple ways and multiple bridges through downtown Minneapolis, Dinkytown, I-35, I-94, Lake Street....all over the map. Most of these routes were neither quick or low-stress. I finally figured out how to deal with the traffic, what lane I had to be on, how to get where I needed to go and avoid traffic accidents or build-ups.
Last week, I participated in yet another transportation experiment. I road the bus to downtown Minneapolis for a CPE workshop. I entered my route in the Metro Transit website. I wrote down my stop name. I wrote out the walking directions from that stop. I left early, so I wouldn't be stressed about being late. Well, I missed my stop - so I got off at the next one (which wasn't very close). I could not follow my carefully scribed notes, but I could follow the street numbers (I wrongly assumed these would go in order). After coming to a dead end facing a seemingly endless expanse of interstate lanes with no way across, I broke down. I began calling friends who may be able to use the Internet to help me out. Laura, in NY, was enjoying a bowl of cereal in her pajamas and had Internet access at her fingertips. She was able to direct me by foot to my final destination. An hour and a half after boarding the bus, I finally arrived. (I later discovered I had incorrectly entered the address information, and the stop I got off on was actually closer to my destination than the prescribed one). With the help of Catholic Charities staff and a friendly bus driver, my ride home was much less eventful.
It is certainly a learning experience to move from a community of 1,900 individuals to an urban area of 2.85 million. It is a learning experience to be challenged to try new things, like figuring out biking routes, busing routes, riding the light rail, and meeting fascinating people along the way. One of those fascinating individuals left me with this profound thought, "You can't do anything in this world if you don't know Chinese."
I have lived most of my life in rural, sparsely populated areas. "Mass transportation" is non-existent. One needn't merge when entering the interstate. In the case that someone else is actually within your vicinity whilst entering the roadway - that person gets out of your way (as a common courtesy) because no one else is in their way.
It is different in Minneapolis/St Paul. In anticipation of having to navigate the city on a regular basis for CPE, I experimented with alternative transportation. I got out my trusty bike, Shera, and followed the river in the shortest bike-route path I could find. After an hour and forty minutes (and multiple breaks to revisit the map), I arrived, took a break, and turned around for home. Biking was not an option. I could not spend 3 hours a day on my bike. I was going to have to drive.
During my first two weeks of CPE I drove home a different way every time...I never seemed to be in the right lane, or would come across closed entrance ramps, or detours that I couldn't seem to follow, or one-way streets, or streets that curve away from where I wanted to go. I ended up driving multiple ways and multiple bridges through downtown Minneapolis, Dinkytown, I-35, I-94, Lake Street....all over the map. Most of these routes were neither quick or low-stress. I finally figured out how to deal with the traffic, what lane I had to be on, how to get where I needed to go and avoid traffic accidents or build-ups.
Last week, I participated in yet another transportation experiment. I road the bus to downtown Minneapolis for a CPE workshop. I entered my route in the Metro Transit website. I wrote down my stop name. I wrote out the walking directions from that stop. I left early, so I wouldn't be stressed about being late. Well, I missed my stop - so I got off at the next one (which wasn't very close). I could not follow my carefully scribed notes, but I could follow the street numbers (I wrongly assumed these would go in order). After coming to a dead end facing a seemingly endless expanse of interstate lanes with no way across, I broke down. I began calling friends who may be able to use the Internet to help me out. Laura, in NY, was enjoying a bowl of cereal in her pajamas and had Internet access at her fingertips. She was able to direct me by foot to my final destination. An hour and a half after boarding the bus, I finally arrived. (I later discovered I had incorrectly entered the address information, and the stop I got off on was actually closer to my destination than the prescribed one). With the help of Catholic Charities staff and a friendly bus driver, my ride home was much less eventful.
It is certainly a learning experience to move from a community of 1,900 individuals to an urban area of 2.85 million. It is a learning experience to be challenged to try new things, like figuring out biking routes, busing routes, riding the light rail, and meeting fascinating people along the way. One of those fascinating individuals left me with this profound thought, "You can't do anything in this world if you don't know Chinese."
posted by Nina at 3:10 PM
1 Comments:
...how inopportune, midafternoon, paint me as the goon....together we are m. hannan.
I would like to say to the masses that read your comments: I was getting ready for work. I did not spend the day lounging on my couch in my pjs. Plus I felt like a real humanitarian, helping a lost Christ-ian sister find her way in the Big City.
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