Social Change with that Convenient Bus Trip

As I watch all of the goings-on in D.C. (and curse myself for not being down there) I am, like the rest of the country, moved by the convergence of Martin Luther King’s birthday and Barack Obama’s inauguration. 

Transportation, of course, has been a tool of both social repression and social change.   Montgomery, Alabama, had a system of segregation on its buses that is thankfully unthinkable today.  Whites filled the seats of the bus from front to back, blacks from back to front.  When they met in the middle, all the seats were filled.  Then, if a white person boarded the bus, a black person in the “black” seat closest to the front had to give up their seat.

This was the position that Rosa Parks found herself in on December 1, 1944.  She later said that she wasn’t trying to start a movement–she was just tired and trying to get home.  She was arrested for refusing to surrender her seat to a while man.  A boycott of city buses soon began to protest the racially segregated seating policy.  For 381 days, blacks shunned the buses and used carpooling, taxis, bicycling and walking to travel to their jobs anyplace else they needed to go.  The boycott ended in 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated seating on buses unconstitutional.  While the decision did not end all racial segregation or even ensure fair treatment of blacks during their bus ride, it did open up the transportation system ahead of other areas of society. 

Transportation is where we all face a common need: to get to our destination inexpensively, quickly and safely.  It is where people of all races, religions and social class converge.  A city’s transit system  is the heart of a community and a platform for social good.  We in the transportation industry have been given an important responsibility to ensure that our transportation resources are provided equitably among all people who depend on it.

Super Sully

On his way to a perfect landing in the Hudson River, Captain Sully flipped the ditch switch that sealed up the plane like the armor on the Batmobile; kept the plane steady and brought the Airbus down like he was landing on a runway back at LaGuardia.

The passengers then unbuckled their seat belts and without even reaching for the overhead compartments grabbed their dual purpose seat cushions, blew some air into the little pipes on their life jackets and in an orderly fashion exited the plane.  When the wing was full of people, other passengers were told to go back to another exit and get on the rafts that had more space.  A couple of gentlemen even gave up their places on the wing, got back into the plane and went out a front exit onto a raft.

Captain Sully walked the plane twice to be sure that everyone got out, and then said goodbye to his ship and walked out an exit to join his passengers in waiting for help to arrive. 

Chesley B. Sullenberger III has to be the coolest man alive this morning.  When I heard about the ditch switch, that sealed the deal for me.  Sully is a super hero.  He was calm, focused, knew the right buttons to push and used his glider flying experience (an apt hobby for a superhero) to execute an otherwise routine landing on one of the nation’s businest waterways.  Yes, other factors were in alignment for Captain Sully (after, of course, the unfortunate goose incident)–the weather was clear, there were no boats trolling this particular part of the river and he was apparently transporting the most serene airline passengers in the history of commercial aviation.

Witnesses reported a big splash, but Captain Sully, in true superhero fashion, deserved a grand, if unscheduled, re-entry into New York. 

We so needed this hero to land in our lives right now.  Captain Sully won’t fix the economy, end the war or solve the country’s health care crisis.

But I bet he could.

Update: I just had a great idea! U.S. Airways could get out of debt by allowing passengers to select flights with Captain Sully flying the plane! It could be a new search criteria for flight preferences.  Kind of a Get There Safe Guarantee.

Another update: my dad just told me that Captain Sully probably won’t fly an airliner again, he’ll be promoted to the top of U.S. Airways or hired away by a huge aeronautics company.  Maybe Obama will name him to be head of the FAA.  Or put him on the NTSB. 

Oh Sully, we hardly knew you.

Corner Office, View of the Front Yard

 I was a telecommuting pioneer.  I telecommuted when telecommuting wasn’t cool.  I kept an inbox on my desk for reading materials.  I put off phone calls so I could talk with lots of people on telecommute day.  I scheduled meetings with clients who were closer to home so I could maximize my time in the office.  I worked extra hours on telecommute days so I could show that I was soooo much more productive when I worked at home.  I set up a home office with a door that closed, and hired a woman to watch my son downstairs while I worked dilligently up in my office, pausing only during those times when I’d hear my son crying for mommy and later his little feet running down the hall once he discovered where I hid all day. 

He’s ten now, and still runs down the hall to see me when he comes home.  And then he grabs the Wii remote and asks for a snack.  But I digress.

 Luckily, the days of having to prove your worth every day you worked at home (versus showing up in the office and just looking useful) are over.    With the economy the way it is, employers know that the employees they keep will work hard no matter where they are because they are grateful for the job.  And the ones they don’t keep are  becoming consultants or are working full time looking for their next job–from home. 

It is no longer a requirement to have a “professional”-sounding street address (suite number and all) for a business.  My dad keeps a post office box for his business and goes down to the post office every day to get the mail.  While I like the structure of that (at least it requires that you put on shoes), I don’t think I need it.  Unless, of course, I start receiving a bunch of checks on a regular basis.  That would be worth the trip to the post office.

Anyway, way back in the early 90’s I worked from home one day a week and gave my boss a plan for each telecommute day and a monthly report on what I got done on my work days at home.  By 1998, big as a house and awaiting the birth of my first and only child, telecommuting allowed me to work right up to my due date (my son was actually born on his due date, a testament to my impeccable organizational skills). 

A few years ago, I left my reasonably pleasant, lucrative, stable job and joined Parsons Brinckerhoff, where I worked at home doing a little project management and a lot of proposal writing.  A friend who lived with me at the time built me a great office downstairs in the hallway on the way to the laundry room.  I called it the cave, and spent hundreds of days happily working away down there, my wireless laptop and wireless phone allowing me to navigate the world of big consulting while wearing my sweats.  I traveled a bit, but my home base was my home base.

Last March, I decided to take my writing skills and transportation upstairs and start my own consulting business.  My dad, a successful entrepreneur himself, insisted on painting my guest room and gave me his office furniture while he and my mom bought a set that would let them work side by side in their own home office (that’s a blog post for the future all its own).  I now work from home full time in a beautiful, professional space.  I’ve got a sign on the door that says “Welcome to Paradise”.  I make my own hours but if I don’t work, I don’t get paid.  And if I don’t get paid, I lose my house. And if I lose my house, there goes the home office.  Circle of life.

Of course right now I am sitting on my bed with my laptop resting comfortably on the lap desk I picked up at Costco last Sunday.  I can heat my bedroom on a single zone and let the rest of the house sit cold.  Oh, and I’ve got CNBC running just in case Madoff makes a run for it (no, I didn’t lose millions to him, I’m just fascinated by the story).  My office, down the hall on the right, holds the same stature as my office did when I worked 32 miles and an hour and a half away in Stamford.  I actually feel like I am telecommuting, saving myself the 20 step round trip commute to my serious office. 

Wow, that sounds a little strange.  But maybe its progress.

A Time for Transportation to Shine?

What’s all this I’m reading about the restrictions on travel for the inauguration–even on transit! Okay, so I understand that there is a need for extreme security, and quintupling the population of the city for the day will require some patience.  But its all hands on deck time for the transportation system! And its also a chance to prove to the policy makers that public transportation really can move lots more people than new highway lanes. 

I’m concerned about the Metro station closures and the periodic urgings of many transit operators to people that seek to discourage folks from joining the party on the Mall.  I am particularly worried about the elderly and disabled who are openly steered away from participating.  They are being downright scared out of what could be, for many, the most significant event in their lives.  I would like to see the transit industry and advocates for the elderly and disabled all over DC right now, putting all sorts of programs into place to encourage people to come.  Maybe its special buses with aides who will help the disabled travel that crucial final leg of the trip from the bus stop to the Mall, or putting those electric carts at the bus stops and special areas on the Mall so seniors don’t have to walk blocks and blocks in the cold and are sure to have a place to watch when the finally get there.

I’d also like to see transit telling people that they should go down to the inauguration and if they do, they will get there by transit.  I think everyone knows to be patient.  But do you have to bend over sideways telling people how miserable they can expect to be?

There is a real bright spot in all of fuss, though.  The Washington Area Bicycle Association is providing free valet parking for people who want to ride their bicycle to the inauguration.  A brilliant idea and something that will make it possible for many people–tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? who really knows?– to attend.  I hope they make lots of money on tips.  WABA is a great organization and it is providing a downright patriotic service.

What I would most like to see is my son and I at the inauguration.  But we won’t be going because even after more than 20 years in the transportation business, I can’t find a way to get there.  But I do hope that all of my colleagues down in DC do get there, and are able to point with pride at a transportation system that brought everyone who wanted to be a part of this historic, if a little bit crowded, day.