Travel
As I mentioned in earlier posts, I visited my daughter in NYC last month. As you probably know, NYC is a small space with a ridiculous amount of people. The island of Manhattan is only 34 square miles in size. That’s pretty small. The city of Salt Lake is 112 square miles. 1.6 million people live in Manhattan, while only 200,000 people live in Salt Lake City. Moving all of the folks in Manhattan around their tiny island is quite a trick. If they all had cars, no one would be able to go anywhere. It would be constant gridlock. Luckily for everyone who lives there, NYC has a large public transit system that includes many buses and subways. Ask anyone who lives in NYC, and they might talk about the broken infrastructure that plagues the system. For me, I’m impressed with the vastness and the game of maze runner that one can play while visiting NYC.
When I was in NYC last month, I noticed a change to the bus and subway systems. On my prior visits, I had to purchase a public transportation ticket that acted like a debit card. I would use the ticket every time I got on a bus or subway, and it would subtract the price of the ride from the total value I had on my ticket. While these tickets are still available, now I can use a smart device (smartphone, smartwatch) or a credit/debit card with a contactless feature. So, this visit I was able to just swipe my iPhone as I passed through the turnstile and travel with ease.
I found this feature very convenient. Nothing extra to carry; no additional transaction of buying the transportation ticket. I only purchased the exact amount I needed for my current ride. In the past, I might have purchased a $20 ticket and been stuck with a balance when my visit to NYC ended. In addition, the tickets expired, so if I didn’t come back in time, I just lost the balance on my ticket. This new method of just in time payment was a smarter way of traveling (smarter way - smartphone, ha!).
I used my smartphone to pay when we got off our train from Philadelphia and got on the subway to go to my daughter’s apartment. I used the smartphone to get on the subway to go to a Hanukkah menorah lighting. I used the smartphone to get on the bus from Trader Joe’s to return back to my daughter’s apartment. You get the idea.
One morning when my daughter was working, I decided to take the subway to Macy’s in Herald Square. In my lifetime I’ve visited this Macy’s many times. I used to take the bus to NYC as a teen, hunting through Macy’s for that special something I couldn’t find in the shops in NJ. When I got married, we took a trip to NYC right after the wedding. We visited the storefronts to see all the special holiday window displays. As I visited as an adult over the years, I would go to Macy’s to find clothing, perfume, makeup, or whatever I was interested in on that day.
This particular day, I was hunting for some wine glasses for my daughter. When I got off the subway this time, I was overwhelmed. While I’ve visited NYC during the holiday season before, this was Covid-19 holiday season. The crowds overwhelmed me. The fancy windows, glittering displays, and perfume sprayers were sensory overload. I traveled the escalators up to the 8th floor. On my journey. I remembered my younger self traveling the floors of the building. I remembered how the upper floors still had wooden escalators. They still do. When I reached the housewares floor, I searched to find wine glasses. They were all located against a wall. I took a look at all of them and gauged the pricing. None of them seemed right. I felt discouraged. I had traveled all the way to Macy’s for nothing. I had spent my $2.75 (roundtrip $5.50) for nothing. I thought, “I spent that money to get here, maybe I should just get something.” I ended up leaving the store empty-handed, getting back on the subway, and heading back to my daughter’s apartment.
But here’s the thing, I noticed and was disappointed that I had spent money getting to the store. Why? My smartphone kept flashing alerts on my screen every time I went through the turnstile. When I am home, I get in my car and drive down the road. I don’t drive very far, and I have a hybrid car. So I usually only fill the tank once a month or so. I rarely EVER think about the cost of driving around. When I was on the subway, I was traveling with other passengers leaving a shared carbon footprint. In my car, I’m sending pollutants in the air, I’m hurting the earth. Do I think about it? Not really. I don’t think of my own personal cost (gas, wear and tear on the car) or my cost to everyone else (carbon footprint, the cost of manufacturing new cars, noise, etc.). Suddenly, after my visit to NYC on public transportation, I am thinking about how I can consolidate trips. I’m wondering if I can work with the closer grocery store that I can walk to rather than drive to the one further away. It would take more trips because there’s only so much I can carry, but still...Do I want to make less of an impact? Would I consider public transportation here in SLC? It doesn’t seem nearly as convenient as it is in NYC. But would I feel better about my sudden recognition of the impact that I make on the planet? Maybe so. In the past, I haven’t given these alternatives much thought. So what am I waiting for? Perhaps it’s time to get on the bus.
