Riding SunRail is relaxing and I can get a lot of work done, rather than worrying I will be killed on I-4
I spent three weeks in Osaka, Japan last month. A city of 22 million people, Osaka has no traffic jams and few traffic deaths. Fat people are practically non existent in Japan, reserved for Sumo wrestlers, because every one walks and bikes.
Subways and trains connect all people easily from their homes to work, shopping centers, doctors and school. Rich, poor, elderly, young – all people in Japan can get around anywhere in the country easily by train.
Coming back to the United States, I realize how insane it is that people drive cars and lack efficient basic rail systems to use for daily life. It’s insane to think of the expense of private cars, not to mention that only those who have money can afford to maintain a car and pay tolls. The insane toll on the environment.
The death tolls on highways are insane. Every day news of deaths or several crashes. Every time I get in a car I wonder if some live streaming on Facebook teenager is out there also behind the wheel of a car and is trying to kill me.
What the online service, EverQuote, said about Interstate 4 in Florida that runs through Central Florida: “The 132-mile highway connects from I-275 to I-95, and has had 1.41 fatalities per mile in the past six years, making it the most dangerous interstate in the United States.” Not to mention that a study recently linked demential with proximity to heavy traffic, like Orlando has.
Riding public transportation, like Amtrak, provides opportunity to be connected to people, not isolated in a car.
To combat this insane stress of driving, I love taking Sunrail from Debary (one day Deland!) to downtown Orlando’s Lynx station where I either walk and take the free downtown Lymmo to my fiance Steve’s house in Thornton Park.
Steve and I practically met on Sunrail, as we connected on our love of public transportation. I tried to take an Amtrak train from DeLand to Orlando a few Sundays back, since Sunrail doesn’t run weekends, and has limited Saturday service.
I bought the ticket online, but when I got to the station, the attendant said the train was delayed. How long? I asked the attendant.
DeLand, Florida Amtrak station
“I have no idea.” Was the answer. How insane is that? This is America! Or I guess the Post-America world we live in today 2017. I called my teenagers to come pick me up again. Some people there had to wait who knows how long, since the train was stuck in Jacksonville, the attendant said.
Ridiculous and unacceptable. Some people don’t have or can’t afford cars. They can’t get around. That’s America. Some are more equal than others. Polluting up the world, going to war for oil just for the specialty of wasting time in traffic.
I love Sunrail! Check out the schedule and give it a ride! Gas prices are going up again! Plus, save lives!
So it really makes you wonder how a car culture like the United States evolved around artificial necessities. In The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler explains the scam that is insurance and real estate companies, oil and car companies, existing not for the good of the people but for private industry to make a profit. And it’s the people who lose. Especially minorities. But there is hope.
Sunrail is expanding slowly in Florida, and the real estate surrounding Sunrail is also booming and making cities more walkable. Brightline private trains are coming soon and linking Florida too. THANK GOD.
I have hope that the VOTRAN Volusia County bus system I ride from DeLand will also have better scheduling to connect to the DeBary Sunrail, as it currently only works in the morning, and sometimes you can’t get back to where you started! But I will take what I can get.
My Bulgarian friend Rumi took Sunrail from Orlando, changing to Votran to make it to DeLand! Europeans are used to walking and taking public transportation. So easy!
But what I like most about riding around on public transportation is the people you meet. That you mingle with real people and it’s egalitarian. It’s not about the haves and the have nots. It’s just everybody getting around, getting to know each other, dealing and seeing reality and each other clearly.
Transportation and getting around is not just for the few. But everybody. And one of my happiest moments was handing a Bernie Sanders card last summer to a young man and his family on the Lymmo one day.
As the doors closed behind him on the street he called to me smiling widely with the card in hand after he read it. “This! This gives me hope! I will check him out!”
Riding public transportation. Wonderful.
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