Spare the Air, Spare the Assets
Spare the Air days have saved me $19.50 this week, and $32.50 over the past two months. The idea behind Spare the Air is that, on days when air quality is predicted to be low, public transit throughout the Bay Area is free all day. Now, this saves me nothing on the bus since I buy a monthly pass - that's a sunk cost - but I do save money on BART. Every Spare the Air Day saves me $6.50 in BART fares! I'm not entirely sure that this program promotes people to ride public transit that wouldn't normally, but at least it is a big held to folks like me who ride public transit every day.
Speaking of BART, I've come to a realization about riding backwards. Many people don't like to do so. They say they become ill or are afraid because they can't see what is in front of them. Riding backwards, though, has one real benefit and one very valuable potential benefit that should make the backward ride the most coveted.
The real benefit is that you are able to focus on something as you go by it. Riding forwards, you are never able to focus on any one thing for long because, before you know it, you've passed it. Not so riding backwards - while you don't necessarily see what's coming, you can spend as long as you need focusing on those interesting things you pass. Of course, this assumes you are above ground. BART frequently runs underground or through tunnels, so this benefit isn't as useful, but that brings us to the very valuable potential benefit.
Now this second benefit is perhaps the most important, but because it will rarely be used I list it second. Let us assume that you're riding BART. Your train is going peacefully along when suddenly your driver spots something ahead on the tracks. Now, the train operator doesn't want to hit this, but there isn't time to make a slow, controlled stop, so instead he throws on the brakes! Now, there are three types of riders, and each will be impacted differently.
- The Stander. If you find yourself one of the unlucky few (or many, as the case may be) without a seat, you're more or less screwed in this situation. You're likely to be thrown painfully forward into a mass of other standers. If you're agile enough to have held on a hand pole, then you're likely to have your arm shattered when that clumsy clown behind you sails into you at 40 miles per hour (inertia, friends).
- The Forward Sitter. Forward sitters risk several thing. They are slightly better off than the standers, but they are still at great risk. Most likely, a forward sitter will be propelled forward into the seat in front of them. If they are propelled on an axis at their hips, then they are likely to suffer from a broken nose, or worse, as their face slams into the seat. If you are unlucky enough to be in a seat with no seat in front of it, you become a human bowling ball, projecting at a high velocity out of you seat and into the knees of everyone stnding in front of you, ending up slammed into a wall 8 to 10 feet across from you. Not good.
- The Backward Rider. Aren't you glad you listened to Lance? You sit safely in your seat and feel a pleasant, if slightly forceful, pressure against your back as the seat supports you and absorbs most of the deceleration. There you sit, casually reading your book, never glancing away from that riveting story, while all those other riders find themselves wallowing in pain.