I can’t drive due to my vision loss, so transportation has been one of my biggest challenges. I do have this challenge to thank for making me such an out-of-the-box thinker. There are days when I feel like I need one of those pin up maps where you stick a pin at point A, B, C, etc. Here is how I am going to get from Point A to B, then C, then back to A…
When I was younger, I just assumed I’d eventually live in a big city where there was public transportation readily available. I did live in the Triangle area of NC and got to know the bus system really well. I can take the train from Charlotte to Durham, walk over to the bus station and catch a bus to Southpoint Mall and Chapel Hill. There was also that time I got on a bus that said it was the 5, and was grateful when I heard someone hop on and say “y’all know this is the 6 right?” I used the paratransit system along with the regular bus system to go to work, appointments, etc. Plenty of stories there as well… It was also very inexpensive, but took forever. A 10 minute commute by car normally took at least an hour via public transportation. Another thing I appreciated while living in Durham was the ability to walk to places like the grocery store. It was about a half mile walk from my apartment. The ability to walk to places that have basic necessities was a huge deciding factor for living where I do now, in a tiny little one stoplight town. If all else fails, I can walk to work, CVS, or the grocery store if I need to.
The ability to drive is an assumption that I think COVID helped expose. People were limited to virtual meetings or curbside delivery. Out of that came Instacart and DoorDash to this rural area, and the remaining ability to attend events either online or in person. I used to live less than a mile from Aldi and Lowes before Instacart, and now they provide delivery almost 10 miles away. I’ve heard a lot of talk about how it is great to go to in-person events again and there really are some things like concerts that are best experienced in person. I do hope that we will continue to host a mix of virtual and in-person events so that more people are capable of experiencing them in a way that meets their needs. The cost of gas has also prompted some conversation around this topic as well.
I get the feeling that fully automated cars are still a ways away. In the meantime, I would love to see more creative options for transportation in rural areas where buses are few and the cost of paratransit is significantly higher, yet the overall cost of living is much lower. A rideshare service? More walking/biking groups? Shuttles to events? Use a few off the top of my head. Maybe shift transportation from such a highly individualized thing to something that society in general needs access to.
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