[PRCo] I miss the Harmony Route...

[Derrick Brashear]

A week and 7 hours ago, someone broke into my car to steal a few bucks
(maybe $4),
so this week has been, de facto, accepting of my friend Stu's "168
hour car free challenge"

http://www.myspace.com/unicycleintransit/blog/427287240

At this point, I already use a bicycle and less often a bus in
combination to get a lot of places.
This works reasonably inside the county, because all buses are bike
rack equipped.
It works less well on the T, because while you can take your bike on
the railcars, they sit
where the seats fold up for wheelchairs, meaning the 2 bike slots
vanish if wheelchairs happen
to be on board; Worse, on a crowded car, people do not want to get up
to let you lock up
the bike. I did use the T to bring my bike back from Library
previously after a 40 mile bike
ride, but as the first person on the vehicle, it's not a problem.

Anyway, this week was a little different. Thursday, a friend who owns
a pub at Beaver Valley Mall
had pulled out a keg which she'd been aging since last year of
something special. Sounded interesting
and I aimed to try a snifter of it. No car, though, so my plan of go
early, have one, shop for a while,
come home, wasn't going to fly.

BCTA runs a number of trips from Pittsburgh on weekdays. They run
basically express to Ambridge, and
then there is a transfer center at Rochester. Normally there is also a
route which runs from
Ambridge via Aliquippa and Monaca to Rochester which would have shaved
some time off,
but since the Ambridge-Woodlawn bridge is under construction, I
continued to Rochester,
then to the mall. 90 minutes all told, and I worked on the bus.

Had my beer, while continuing to work, chatting with the bartender and
the gentleman beside me
about technology and what was possible to do with their cell phones,
and then eventually my friend
who owns the place came out and we caught up.

The return schedule was dictated by the last express bus to
Pittsburgh, and I arrived in the city at 7:30ish,
after another 90 minutes working on the bus.

No bike racks on BCTA, or I would have biked from East Rochester to
the mall, but the trip worked.

Saturday was harder. A friend in Ellwood City was having a party. My
options by transit were NCATA to New Castle, then
to Ellwood City, then walk 2 miles... NCATA to Portersville and walk 7
miles... or BCTA to Beaver Falls and walk 11 miles.
No bike racks on NCATA either, and there are but 3 Saturday trips to
Pittsburgh, not well-timed.

I considered, too late, buying a folding bike. Had I one, I might have
attempted this. But, much like the recent times
when I wanted to get to Cranberry and in the other case had no
interest in driving, this week I miss the Harmony route.

-- 
Derrick