Two years ago, I started a new job which meant a new commute. My previous commute was a 12 minute walk which I enjoyed year-round, in any weather (rain, snow, cold, heat, etc.). I knew my new commute would be quite different but I was determined to find a way to avoid getting in my car and to include some time in nature each day.

Hence, this is where the scooter came into play. So after some research online, I bought a Razor A5 Lux in blue and began playing with it. Fortunately I had a few weeks in between jobs to test it out and pick out my ideal routes.

My commute then included a 1.7 mile scooter ride in the morning through my quiet neighborhood and then down a beautiful bike path full of wild life to where I catch the county bus to work. In the afternoon, I alternated between taking the county bus followed by that same 1.7 scooter ride from the morning or taking the coach bus to the park and ride followed by a 2.5 mile scooter ride on the sidewalk along a busier road. They both had their advantages and I liked the flexibility.

Now you may ask yourself, how much of the year could I really scooter in such a cold weather state? The answer is most of it. The cold didn't stop me. It never has. Snow covered trails would stop me though but fortunately my city plowed the bike paths, so they don't stay snow covered for long. And I don't scooter on wet pavement in the morning as the spray up turns the back of my dress a bit muddy. (In the evenings when I can go home, clean up and change, I don't mind the rain or wet pavement.)

In November of 2018, I moved to a new city, Birmingham, AL in a much warmer climate, where my commute is now 7 blocks. It is amazing to now have a 4 minute commute to work! Such a change from my one-way hour commute in Milwaukee!

Let me tell you how I came up with the name for this blog, "The Scooter Lady". I was downtown Milwaukee afterwork one day riding my scooter. (I don't even remember why I was hanging out downtown that day.) I stopped in the local mall and was carrying my scooter when someone yelled out, "hey there's the scooter lady!" When I told a colleague at work this story, he told me I needed to create a webpage for The Scooter Lady. So without further ado, read on for my experiences commuting by scooter.





Thursday, July 13, 2017

Bus Rookie

This morning a married man in his mid 30s got on the bus and explained that it was his first time riding the bus and he had accidentally gotten on the westbound bus and paid his fair there. (With the bus's new system, if you pay in cash and don't have an MCard, you can't get a transfer as they don't give out paper transfers anymore.) The bus driver let him on without issue.

This made me think back to my first bus experiences. The first time I road the city bus I was in upper grade school. My parents had signed my younger sister and I up for swimming lessons at the city pool that summer. The lessons were during the day when my parents were working. Fortunately, there was a bus stop right outside our house. I remember feeling so grown being responsible for getting my sister and I to lessons which required transferring buses at the transit center.

There was one time we came out of lessons only to discover that I was short on bus fare. I had grabbed a nickle instead of a quarter. After a few moments of panic, I stepped into the Speedway gas station across from the pool and one of the clerks was kind enough to give me the 20 cents I was short. This story was a bit more fresh in my mind this morning, as last night, we drove by this Speedway.
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