Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Transit Strike

If you're in the HRM area, you know that Metro Transit went on strike on Groundhog's Day. I really didn't think it was going to happen. The day before, I was telling all my coworkers that I doubted they were going to strike as they were still negotiating. Then I told some girls I was running with that night the same thing. I guess I jinxed it. Sorry...

Although I don't own a car, I am not too bothered by the strike. I'm one of the lucky ones. Since I work downtown in a job that does not require me having a car, I've chosen to live close enough to work to be able to commute via foot/bike within a reasonable amount of time, and to not have a long commute via transit. Also, I have friends and coworkers who have offered to give me a lift. So far, I've accepted one drive home. The rest of the time, I've been commuting by foot.

Tomorrow will be three weeks that transit has been on strike, so 15 business days. I had a vacation in there, plus a sick day, so I've only commuted 9.5 days (due to accepting that ride). But that's 9.5 days * 2 ways * 4.5k to work = 85.5km that I've walked/ran due to the strike. Checking my run log, I ran 36k of that, which means I walked 49.5k (including tonight's walk home). Not too shabby.

Truth be told, I kind of enjoyed the push to commute by foot again. I normally do in the nicer weather months, and then start taking transit again in November until March. There have been a few days that I would have taken transit if it were running due to weather, and those days, I admit that I kind of scowled as I ran/walked past the picketing workers. (I think this morning was the worst with snow being blown sideways into my face on the bridge.) But, it has been nice to see how many more walkers/runners/cyclists there are on my commute. I hope everyone who is new to commuting on foot/bike is enjoying the commute and will keep it up if and when the strike ends. And I do look forward to taking the ferry on those nasty weather days again.

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