Like most New Yorkers, I've had what could best be described as The Commute From Hell. Thanks to a tornado assisted torrential rain it took me about 5 hours to get from 184th and Bennett to 4 New York Plaza. Normally this is a simple matter of taking the A-Train to Broadway Nassau/Fulton and then the 4/5 to Bowling Green and it takes about 45-50 minutes.
Today's commute reads more like like one of Billy's adventures in
Family Circus:
- A-Train from 181st stop gets stuck underground for 30-45 minutes, finally reaching 145.
- I head topside at 145 to see how the buses are running. After some waiting there I head back down into the subway where the train from which I had disembarked is still parked.
- A-Train goes local until 110 or so. I get fed up and walk a few avenues to the 1 line
- The 1 not faring much better, I walk to 96th street to hedge bets with the 2/3.
- Turns out that line is messed up too, so I take a crosstown bus to try the east side.
- Pick up the 6 at 96th and Lex.
- Due to the flooding at 59th street, the 6 stops at 68th street prompting a transfer to the N line.
- From the N I transfer one more time to pick up the R.
- R goes to Whitehall Station which is a block or so from the office
Keeping in mind that all this included numerous delays, slow running trains, packed corners, and hot muggy weather. Total time: just under 5 hours.
Still a few good things came out of it. For one, between both commutes I started and finished Aldous Huxley's dystopian tale A Brave New World. And keeping a positive attitude during this trek, I did get to meet a whole slew of interesting people whom I'd otherwise have ignored from bankers, lawyers, to a Hofstra PhD student. As a whole people seemed exasperated, but some in better spirits than others. But while I was imagining a transit strike under Bloomber's theoretical congestion pricing scheme, I was also privy to some of my fellow commuters erudite discourses of civil engineering and political theory, featuring such profundities as "these guys are all morons" and "this is f---ing bulls---t" (an apparent consensus).
O brave new world that has such people in it, indeed.
