Standin’ On the Corner, Waitin’ For the Bus
So, I think I have complained before about the lack of transportation alternatives in Bloomington and how hard it is to get to other communities. Part of my focus has been complaining about the lack of trains in the area but there also have not been good bus or car-share options. Happily, there are a few new developments happening - plus a couple that seem to have escaped my notice when they arrived. I haven’t tried them all out yet but here’s the breakdown of motorized transportation options in Bloomington that don’t involve owning your own car. (Walking and biking are also important, of course - and don’t forget dog pulling!)
Getting Out of Town
1. Bloomington Shuttle Service - originally just provided service to and from the airport ($15) but now they also have weekend service to Chicagoland where you go Friday night and come back Sunday night ($82). However, the stops are all in the Chicago suburbs so I’m not sure what transportation options there are to actually get into the city. (A quick Google Transit search says there’s no super easy option since malls tend to be located on interstates rather than subway lines).
2. Star of America - also started here with a focus on transportation to and from the airport ($15) but now also offering service to Chicagoland that is similar to the Bloomington Shuttle Service but a little cheaper. I think they also offered a few special summer trips last year, including one down to the “Splashing Safari” water park as a day trip.
3. Miller Trailways - a little closer to a Greyhound type service with a number of set routes around the state, mostly connecting Indianapolis with other big cities but stopping at smaller towns along the way. We are on the “Indianapolis-Evansville” route which means we could catch a ride either headed north to Indy or headed south and west to places like Bedford, Paoli, Vincennes, and Evansville. I would definitely consider paying $16 to ride the bus down to Paoli instead of driving and am glad that the Amish communities in that area do have a bus option when they need it.
4. ZipCar - Yay, we have a zipcar now!! This is very new to Bloomington and Indiana University. Anyone can become a member and then rent a car by the hour or day although there is a discount for IU students, faculty, and staff. It’s not the cheapest option in the world but neither is owning a car and I’m very happy this option is available to us now. (There are also other car rental places in town that tend to be a little cheaper for longer term rentals.)
5. ZimRide - This is another cool new program that is designed to encourage ridesharing. It’s basically an internet-based rideshare board but you can also rate people as good or not-so-good ride options so it will hopefully help people find ways to build a network of safe ride options. Alas, it does not appear to be up and running for IU just yet but I know the university signed a two-year contract only a couple weeks ago so hopefully it will be available within the next month.
Getting Around Town
1. Bloomington Transit - basic bus service within city limits, nice reliable service, fairly cheap ($1.00/ride), can be time consuming depending on where you’re trying to go, especially since almost all routes go to the bus station downtown. I still want to launch my “bus fairy” concept where route information would be posted at every bus stop so when you’re wandering around town you can understand your city bus options. I think this might help people start to consider the bus as an option (as in “Gee, it turns out I could hop on the bus right outside of my apartment and be downtown in ten minutes!”)
2. IU Campus Bus Service - basic bus service around campus, free for students and employees (and I don’t think they check IDs), I myself have never quite figured out the routes (see the “bus fairy” idea above).
3. Rural Transit - this is a great service that does not get enough press, possibly because it’s focused on areas outside of Bloomington and possibly because if too many people found out about it, they would be overwhelmed with requests. Basically, the rural transit buses are designed to help folks in the county get into Bloomington, Elletsville, Spencer, and other nearby towns. There are a few set routes (including one I used to ride to Ivy Tech when I worked there) and what they call “county sweeps” where they will pick people up at home out in the county in the early morning and deliver them to the Bloomington bus station in time to take a city bus to work. There is also a special service where you can call 24 hours in advance and ask to be added to one of their routes. They have specific routes each day of the week so if you live in Smithville, Wednesday is your “route” day and you can call to be picked up and taken anywhere along that route - picnic at Fairfax Beach, be dropped off in downtown Bloomington, visit a friend in nearby Clear Creek, etc. The price for a ride is $0.75. Pretty amazing, right?
4. Fresh Air Taxis - Okay, this is not a motorized transportation option but I thought it was cool enough to include - we now have a bicycle rickshaw service in town. As an interesting side note, the city ended up modifying city code to create some guidance for bicycle rickshaws when they were approached for a business license and the business did not fit into any of their regular slots.
So, I’m feeling a little better about the state of alternative transportation in Bloomington. There are still many, many improvements that can be made and I hope to push them forward with my new position on the Bloomington Commission on Sustainability. Let me know if you have specific suggestions.
We’ve been working with a 
snowed another eight inches on Monday so we took her out yesterday at our house. The snow was too deep for good sledding so she gave up when I sat in the sled. However, she had no problem towing a sled with a 50-lb bag of sand. Well, no problem except for getting the sled tangled up as she followed her nose in pursuit of squirrels, rabbits, and the groundhog that lives under our back shed. (Need to motivate your dog to pull a heavy sled? Simply arrange for a groundhog to be located at your final destination.) We all had a good time playing in the snow until the shivering got intense.
However, Will’s ultimate dream is to hook her up to a 
So we signed up for the SIREN Energy Challenge and have been trying to figure out where we use electricity and how we can cut back, which means Will is running around using his Killowatt on everything. At the same time, I am planning my garden for spring and also thinking about how we will take advantage of the summer bounty. My dad helped me set up a seed starting system with three shelves of fluorescent lights and I’m trying to talk Will into getting a chest freezer so we can store the summer’s vegetables but all he can think about is the increased electrical consumption.
I’m on the board for a local group called the Center for Sustainable Living and a few folks from the center are organizing the first ever 
Well, approximately one year after we purchased an 
Next came the fun but mildly intimidating step of drilling a hole in the roof! We rented a “Sawzall” reciprocating saw for the job since it didn’t seem like a piece of equipment we really needed to own. I am mildly afraid of heights but I do love power tools so I had a good time cutting out a big chunk o’ roof. Happily, the solar tube is designed in a way that the hole does not need to be perfectly circular (it wasn’t) since it comes with a rubber “boot” that fits over the hole, under the neighboring shingles. Once we had the hole cut, we pried up the shingles around it, put some roof sealant on the rubber boot, and slid it into place.
Somehow we didn’t get any pictures of us sliding the actual metal tube into place, probably because I kept blinding Will with it. The solar tube is comprised of two very shiny metal tubes and a clear plastic dome. Sun shines down on the dome and then bounces down through the tubes to our kitchen, where a frosted plastic light fixture lets the light shine through without blinding anyone.
So, back up to the roof to remove the dome, swap the tubes, then Will stayed on the roof while I went into the attic and it was much easier to get the tubes together. He pulled the top tube up while I put the correct bottom tube into place in the ceiling fixture, and then he pushed the top tube down, helping me wrestle the two tubes together and then tape them with the shiny metal tape enclosed in our original kit. Whew! I totally used some muscles I didn’t know I had but I would willingly do it again and I know it would go faster the second time.
Well, my big accomplishment this weekend was mouse-proofing our kitchen. Can you believe they were squeezing in next to the gas line to our oven? I didn’t know they were so flexible but judging by the amount of mouse poop present, that was their primary hangout.
It might not be clear in this photograph but this is (was) an heirloom “Freedom” apple tree I planted early this spring from 
