We continue our Route of the Month Series today looking at one of the AATA’s busiest routes, the #4.

In this post, writer Laura Bien imagines what a ride on the Route #4 Washtenaw Bus might have been like in June of 1840. . .

Route of the Month: Route 4
From Poorhouse to President’s House

Route 4 travels the county’s most heavily urbanized stretch of road, where often the only bits of green are patches of fast food restaurant landscaping and trees in parking lots’ mini grass islands. But imagine hopping on the #4 in Ypsilanti in, say, June of 1840.

Remember to look for the bus whose front and side signs don’t read “Washtenaw,” as they do now, but “Middle Ypsilanti Road,” as Washtenaw Avenue was once called. (The #3 would similarly be called “North Ypsilanti Road,” the onetime name of Geddes Road, and the #5 would be called “South Ypsilanti Road,” the onetime name of Packard). Avoid the back of the bus, where the modern-day mildly bouncy ride would instead throw you out of your seat. Pick a dry day, since the Middle Ypsilanti Road is, in 1840, a narrow dirt path. Last, it wouldn’t hurt to sit next to a red-handled emergency exit window–just in case, Heaven forbid, the bus tips over in one of the road’s deep wagon-wheel ruts.

Off we go.

On the bumpy, jaw-rattling ride to Ann Arbor, the view is reversed from the present-day scene. Instead of buildings and parking lots with relatively little greenery, the rider sees green trees, tidy fruit orchards, black and brown cows, and neatly-fenced farms, with only a few buildings in sight. Look south when passing Carpenter Road and you see the handful of buildings that eventually formed the now-vanished village of Carpenter’s Corner, at Carpenter and South Ypsilanti Road.

One of the most impressive buildings comes into view just southeast of the city limits. Here the rider sees the new two-story poorhouse. It occupies a 128-acre farm. In one field the rider glimpses several people tending rows of vegetables; these are the pauper residents, who helped tend the farm and who, by all accounts, were treated humanely.

Even forty years later, the facility was Michigan’s only county poorhouse with a special bathing-house, when many Michigan county poorhouses had no bathing facilities at all. The site is today’s County Farm Park at Washtenaw and Platt.

The most exciting scene comes further down Washtenaw, where the rider can disembark to view the infant University of Michigan, occupying the square bounded by North, South, and East University Avenues and State Street. Only four buildings appear: professors’ houses, of which the modern-day President’s House survives. There’s also a prepared foundation for the scheduled construction of Mason Hall, which served as both dormitory and classrooms for U-M’s first class, in 1841, of 6 students. Otherwise, the campus looks barren, with muddy paths between the buildings. An L-shaped line of oaks, along the eastern and southern sides of campus, provides the only shade. The campus’s bleak appearance prompted one group of advisors in 1847 to suggest that “the highway of thought, and intellectual development and progress, much of which is parched and rugged, should, as far as may be, be refreshed with fountains and strewn with flowers.” They’d likely smile to see today’s pretty campus, and the time-traveling rider also smiles to see the humble beginnings of a great university on its third birthday, three years after its inaugural regents’ meeting on June 5, 1837.

A smile that fades at the thought of the hair-raising 1840 bus ride back to Ypsi.

Want to see the Commuter Challenge through the eyes of someone who lived it?  You can by checking out Cedric Richner’s Commuter Challenge Blog. Cedric works for Richner and Richner as a fundraising consultant.

Here are a couple of snippets:

“May 1: Today is the beginning of my vow to not use my car for the entire month. I walked down to the bus stop, chest thrust out- nose in the air- and dismissively eyed the mass of humanity in their gas guzzling behemoths. I could practically hear them cackling with glee as they raced through the streets relentlessly pursuing their demonic mission to destroy the earth with their over the top, self absorbed singular focus on sucking the planet’s resources dry one commuter, one commute at a time. . . .”

“May 5: Today marks the day of my first official client visit via my bike. I was about to leave on the three mile ride to the client site when a co-worker told me that she was going to be driving right by where I needed to go… What could I do? What would you have done? . . .”

“May 7: Warning! Beware of any company that employees a guy named Rooney, William
Vice President, Security Strategy and Special Operations… You just know that you are going to be in for a bad experience. Rooney, William works for a company called “Amtrak”. You might have heard of it…”

Read Cedric’s Commuter Challenge blog here

Here’s another post from Washtenaw County employee Stacy Ebron about the Commuter Challenge:

Thank goodness for the Commuter Challenge. I started biking to work last summer and continued through the fall.  I’ll admit the winter months were challenging and I finally decided in early December that winter biking in Michigan was too much for me.

The Commuter Challenge gave me the motivation I needed to dust off my bike again and resume biking to work.  On days when the weather is not cooperative, I decided to catch the bus.

This month, I even learned how to put my bike on the bus for days when biking to work was not practical/convenient, but biking from work was.  What I learned from this experience is that taking the bus is more convenient than I thought.  Even on days when I have to travel from work to visit a client site, I have found that for some locations, I can catch the bus with my bike and then bike home the client site.

I still wish the bus came more frequently, but I realized that the bus ride really only adds about 10 minutes to my regular commute to work.  The savings on gas, the benefit to my personal health and to the health of the environment are definitely worth the 10 extra minutes.

Thanks for the challenge I needed to discover that there are even more alternatives to driving to work than I had considered.

This Citizen Post comes from Stacy Ebron.  Stacy works for Washtenaw County, as the Homeless Management Information Systems Coordinator.

How biking to work can help you lose weight and get your husband to do the dishes

Last year my husband encouraged me to start biking.  He had been biking for about a year and really wanted it to be an activity that we could do together.  I agreed to go bike shopping with him.  After the first trip, he came home and did the dishes.  After the second trip to look at bikes, he folded clothes.  I soon thought I was on to something.  On the third trip I found a comfort bike that I loved and decided not to hold out for the chance to see him mop.

My adventure in biking started slowly.  At first, I started with a trip to the mall and back which was about a mile.  Gradually, I worked my way up about a mile each week and then set a goal to bike to work.  After a few weekends practicing the commute in partial increments, I finally believed that I could make it there and back (8-10 miles roundtrip depending on the route).  I felt such a sense of accomplishment that I began biking to work 2-3 days a week.  After 4 months, I lost 30 pounds, gained some new leg muscles, and a great sense of pride in myself for achieving a healthier lifestyle, and contributing to the environment.   This change led to more quality time for my husband and I and motivated him to bike to work more frequently and to continue through the winter months (I’m still working on this).  I encourage people to find a bike that is comfortable for them and then set small goals to work up to fabulous results.  I had forgotten how much fun I had as a child riding my back, but it all came back to me.  Enjoy the ride!

–Stacy

Here’s a Curb Your Car Month Post from Ann Arbor Googler Vicki Chan.

Here’s how Vicki describes herself:

As an AdWords associate for Google, I assist AdWords advertisers with their accounts and online marketing strategies. I graduated from Yale University with a degree in Sociology. I hail from Oakland, California and love to babysit, play Ultimate Frisbee and make bad jokes. (Mostly puns.)

Here’s Vicki’s Post:

Hybrid is the word of the day

This summer, yours truly will be playing with a club ultimate Frisbee team in Ann Arbor called Hybrid. To commute to those practices, I just bought a sweet Trek Multirack Women’s Hybrid bike in April. It’s no surprise that I’m also considering purchasing a Hybrid vehicle somewhere down the line. When I decide to have a kid, it’ll only be right to name her Hybridia, or Hybrid if he’s a boy.

I recently moved to Ann Arbor to start work with the Google office, and chose a friendly, family neighborhood apartment about 2 miles away from the office. During the winter and snow, I rode the Ann Arbor city bus downtown (go 9 and 9U!). Dragging myself out of bed in those below freezing temperatures was only made tolerable because of the bus drivers Ted and Dorien I met along the way. I just thought about how early they had to get up, and suddenly it didn’t seem so bad for me. Riding the bus with my fellow commuters in silent solidarity against the wind and sleet was actually a very unifying experience, but for the sake of sunshine, let’s fast forward to Spring and allow me to tell you why my commute is a hybrid commute, and not just a slushy snowy bus ride.

Last month at the start of Spring, I was ecstatic to finally wear short sleeves again and don my Wonderwoman helmet to break in my new bike. Riding west on Washington St. and seeing kids play roller hockey on the street and dogs chase obese squirrels up trees is downright blissful. After being indoors in an office building for most of the day, breathing fresh air and seeing playful creatures (both kids and squirrels alike) keeps me sane and grounded. I’m an outdoors person, and I’ve been known to chase a squirrel or two. Having that time before and after work to see and think about all things nature is really a necessary part of my day.

Commuting to work is all about choices, and I can’t ride to work every single day, but I can choose to diversify my sustainable commute options by using a hybrid strategy of self-powered commute options: riding my bike, using the bus system, and occasionally the nice long walk. An added incentive that pushes me to use sustainable commutes on rainy days is that Google supports the Self-Powered Commute program, which earns my nonprofit of choice $5 in donation for each day I walk, bike, or bus to work.

The short story is that I’m glad it’s Spring and I’m glad I get to bike again. I’m also glad for fat, but speedy squirrels, otherwise that Spring scene wouldn’t be quite as pleasant. Perhaps I can fit the chunky monkey squirrels with mini Hybrid bikes, so they can get some hybrid variety in their happy little lives too.

See you on those biking lanes!

Vicki

This Curb Your Car Month post comes from Andy Brush.  He’s in the IT department at Washtenaw County:

Bike Commuting: There isn’t a better time than now

If I don’t get to ride my bike to work, I have to *find* time to exercise. If I don’t get that morning snootful of fresh air, I feel much more antsy at work.  Biking is good all around. It lets me know that I’m not so busy that I have to rush to work. It lets me know that taking care of myself and the planet are important to me on a daily basis. I feel good about it.

These days I commute from my home southeast Ann Arbor to where I work for Washtenaw County on Fourth Avenue downtown. It is about 3 and a half miles and takes between 15 and 20 minutes depending upon the route, my pace, and whether or not I stop and visit with people. I’m lucky because I don’t have much competition for parking my bike inside the building in stairwells or an uncluttered hallway. Parking right at my building shortens the overall commute time, since I don’t walk from a parking lot.

Ann Arbor is a great biking town and it is getting better. Things are getting better with bike lanes, but for me, the main thoroughfares aren’t as interesting as the side streets. The things that cars hate about side streets make them great for bikes: narrow roads, slower speed limits, more choices and turns.

Ann Arbor has a small town feel and you can emphasize that in your choice of bike routes. You can find many ways to get places. If you have a regular commute, you’ll find a route, or several routes, that really work for you. It just takes a little thought. You’ll find the fastest, the flattest (and easiest), the most scenic, the quietest. All it  it takes is a willingness to explore. I have my fast route, and then about 7 variations of the scenic route.

Not only is biking good for you and the environment, it is good for you and the car that you leave at home. As gas approaches $4 a gallon, I haven’t really noticed. And 4 mile commute is rough on a car. And the fewer miles, the longer things last. Think about it: two oil changes a year; tires that last for 5 years or more. Leaving it home to rest is much better; a 2000 model year vehicle that feels like new. I don’t even know how much money I’m saving.

Some people think it extreme to bike to work often, regardless of the season. To me it is more about a choice and a commitment and then finding a way. If you need motivation, it isn’t hard to find. Just look around:

· Global warming. Zero emission commute.

· High fuel prices. No gas tank.

· Stress at work. Quiet side streets.

· Skyrocketing health care costs. Built in daily workout.

above: The elevators at the First National Building where Dunrie works.

Here’s another Curb Your Car Month post from a citizen. This one’s from Dunrie Greiling of Pure Visibility.

I curbed my (elevator) car in May

So, I’m loving Curb Your Car month. It makes me proud to live in a city where there are other folks who value walking, biking, busing, and carpooling to work enough to make a month-long-celebration of it!

I already walk to work. I’ve walked to work since I moved to Ann Arbor, in 1993. My first home here in Ann Arbor was a shared house on South Ashley, I walked from there to the Kraus Natural Science Building, where I was a graduate student in Biology. In 2000, I finished my doctorate and got a job at spatial analysis software company BioMedware on North State Street. I was living in a different apartment (this time on North First) by then, but still walking to work. Later that year, my husband and I bought a home on South First, and since then, I’ve used walkability as a criterion in my job hunts. Since BioMedware, I’ve had 3 jobs, I’m now working at the internet marketing company Pure Visibility, and I’m happy to report there are lots of great companies within walking distance of my home.

So, when it came time for Curb Your Car month, I wasn’t sure how to “up the ante”. I mean, giving up my car in May wasn’t really a commitment, as I hadn’t commuted by automobile since living in New Jersey in 1993!

Last August, Pure Visibility moved into the First National Building – into the 5th Floor, with spectacular views of Ann Arbor (come up and visit!). Since then, I’d been taking the elevator from the ground floor to our floor. I gained a few pounds, and I wanted them to come off. I also started measuring my daily footsteps with a pedometer, and tracking my walks on Ann Arbor’s WalkerTracker mini-site for pedometer enthusiasts. I began to covet those steps, and I wanted to up my daily exercise to work off the winter weight.

So, I decided to make this month curb my (elevator) car month.

Each morning, I walk past the waiting elevators and into the stairwell. I walk up the 82 steps from the first to the fifth floor, and I arrive, slightly winded and proud, at the 5th Floor to start my workday. Each evening ends going down the same way, and on a good day I get another round trip or two during the day.

What are you going to curb for curb your car month?

Dunrie Greiling
Carless posts on my blog, Scientific Ink

Cedric Richner is a Curb Your Car Month Ambassador. You can read more about him (and other Ambassadors) by clicking here.

He’s been writing a journal of sorts to some of his friends detailing his experiences participating in the Commuter Challenge and being an Ambassador. He recently sent this hilarious top ten list. Please read it with a sense of humor:

The Top Ten Reasons I Decided to be an Ambassador for the Commuter Challenge

10) I learned that it turns out that in the competition to be the country’s fattest state, it is good to be like number 49 or 50… not number 1.

9) Biking to work will give me a reason to wear spandex- legitimately, instead of holed up in my basement rec. room after the family has gone to sleep as usual.

8. I can finally participate in all of the great camp songs the bus drivers on the AATA lead riders in every morning.

7) Walking to work allows me the opportunity to be openly disdainful, and morally superior to everyone driving in their gas guzzling behemoths.

6) Did I mention the spandex?

5) $4.00 a gallon.

4) My mother’s voice in my head: “Do something constructive for once with your life will you!”

3) To keep Nancy Shore, the Challenge’s director, from getting canned.

2) Walking to the refrigerator for a Bud and a chicken pot pie does not constitute a cardiovascular workout.

1) We’re in tree town for God’s sake… you can’t drive

Ann Arbor Googler Ashley Schubert, 24, is an AdWords Account Coordinator who works on supporting  Google’s growing base of advertisers. After graduating from Wake Forest University in May 2007, she moved to Ann Arbor and has been working for Google since December.

Ashley is an avid supporter of sustainable transportation. She shares her thoughts below.

Why should you walk, bike or bus to work instead of driving?

There are so many answers to that question- it’s hard to know where to begin. As a young 24 year old that has just started her first job at Google after many years of schooling, it is a simple answer: money. Don’t get me wrong- I’m a hippy at heart and I try my best to help the environment, but I also need to be fiscally responsible right now. And have you seen the price of gas lately?? Taking the bus or biking to work everyday for two weeks will save me over 40 dollars in gas. And that’s not even adding on the cost of car maintenance and insurance.

I take the bus most days to and from my office in downtown Ann Arbor. If it is a particularly beautiful day, I’ll bike or walk. In addition to money, it actually saves me time by taking the bus because then I don’t have to walk to and from the parking garage, the bus picks me up right outside my office door! And in the winter you quickly realize after spending 10 minutes scraping snow off the car and defrosting it, that if you’d just taken the bus, you’d be in transit by now- and be significantly warmer. I also hate driving in the rain. And who wouldn’t want to walk to the bus stop on a beautiful day?

My favorite days are the ones when I can bike downtown and complete all my errands without ever having to park. I especially like being able to get places faster, like Kerrytown, because I don’t have to follow all the one-way streets on my bike. The Farmer’s Market, my Pilates class above Café Zola, and the Dawn Treader bookstore are my three most common places to commute to-… but it would be a shame to miss all the stuff in between. Ann Arbor is full of great people, but you can’t appreciate its diversity and how unique it is from inside your car.

So just to recap why YOU should bike, bus, or walk:

- Save MONEY (and we love to do that)

- Feel good about curbing CO2 emissions

- Save time and worry over driving in snow and rain (which we have a lot of)

- And connect with the city- really appreciate all the great people and opportunities we have in Ann Arbor. You miss so many great restaurants and little unique shops when you are cruising past them at 30 mph.

I hope to see you on the bus or sidewalk soon!

–Ashley