There are a lot of reasons to commute for work by train.
Some people do it because they have no car to spare while others have no place
or a too-expensive place to park that car at the work end of the trip. Other
people just don't like the traffic or driving in it. Buses typically are
subject to the same traffic conditions as the private automobile. Still other
commuters take the train because they can relax, read, sleep, stare out the
window, work, talk with people they know.
They can get up and walk around and on some trains, use a restroom. Not
the least of the reasons people commute by train is that when something goes
wrong, it is someone else's responsibility to fix.
This is why there is a cognitive disconnect between the
relaxed ride home and the anxious commuter who feels that he must rush off the
train to his car at the end of the day. Between Washington DC and the BWI
airport station there are trains that make the homeward bound trip at about
half-hour intervals every day. Everyday there is one particular man who runs at
his top speed between the train door and the garage. I presume he continues his
sprint after disappearing into the dim recesses of the concrete structure.
We the more relaxed commuters have dubbed him the
"Parkour Commuter" due to his daily antics. He must negotiate two
sharp turns to get away from the station, one left and one right. He leaps out
the train door twisting in mid-stride to make his initial right turn. Then it's
a sprint until he reaches the wire bench that he jumps up on with one foot and
springs forward to land next to the passage where the left turn is executed.
From there he sometimes pushes off the left side wall to
pivot around us slow commuters who are making our way to the same destination
as his. Then it is a zig and a zag to get around the tubular railing that lies
the walk way. Some days it is a vault over the railing and across the grass to
the crosswalk and the occasional dodging of a taxi or a shuttle bus and every
day dodging of the randomly placed pedestrians who are all generally heading in
his direction. The last we see of him is his disappearance through the portal
into the garage. He can't possibly be ever waiting for the elevator so he is
either parked on the first level or he runs up the stairwell. I'm putting my
money on the first level spot.
I would not be surprised to see him leap up and grab a ledge
and climb the outside of the 7 level parking structure. For now at least he seems to be getting out
ahead of the flow of 5:50 PM arrivals who stream out of the pair of garages via
the six exit lanes to form the one driveway lane up to the highway. I am
forever grateful that he is long gone before I reach the exit gate and add my
car to the queue to get out and head home.
For me the train commute is one where I am not harassed and made anxious
and ready to fight someone over a parking space or the position in line to get
out.
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