Route | The Trip is Half the Fun

This Nissan needs extra room

noreply@blogger.com (sam pearson) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:37:00 +0000

I stumbled upon this parking gem up on the roof of Parking Structure II early this afternoon.

So this is one way to avoid squeezing into a compact spot. This guy didn't have to worry about someone denting the doors of his Nissan, or being cramped for space when exiting on either side.

But this kind of parking job isn't just inconsiderate, it's an easy way to earn a $35 fine.

UTAPS Director Nancy Fox said in an email that this car would qualify for one of two violations, for parking in two spots and parking over the white line separating the spaces.

She referenced the Sac State parking regulations, which this person was evidently not concerned with:

DESIGNATED PARKING SPACES:
Parking is authorized in designated parking spaces only. Parking spaces cannot be created. A parking space is designated by a white parking space line on each side or end of the vehicle. Vehicles must fit within the parking space lines. In the unpaved section of Lot 4 and Lot 9, vehicles must be parked in an orderly manner at a wheel stop.

Here's hoping the driver finds a $35 surprise when they return.

Driving at the mercy of the radio

noreply@blogger.com (Jordan Guinn) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:51:00 +0000

The cassette deck on my 1990 Buick Century recently shorted out and I have been forced to endure the radio for the past month or so. It's brutal. Few things in life are as taxing on the human spirit as being stuck in gridlock listening to repetitive ads and grating DJ's. At this point At this point, I can't distinguish a difference between Rob Williams' suffocating self-importance and those kids from the commercials for Paul Blanco's.

It's all blather, and I'm stuck listening to it like a jackass.

With no money to spend on luxuries, there is no way to remedy my situation. All I want is to fix the damn tape deck so I can listen to my iPod again.

I've tried riding with my window down, but all I hear is my clunking motor and all I breathe is polluted air.

Until my finances improve, you can look forward to my constant and prolific insights on radio in Sacramento.

What is this, a phone booth on wheels?

noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin R. Schilter) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Just when I thought I was going to have a quiet commute home, I stepped on Bus No. 87 from Sac State this evening.

I typically get picked up from school but the traffic coming to the university is perpetually bad-- especially after 4 p.m. I was already having a bad afternoon and just wanted to head home and complete my homework. The buses were running kinda late because Facilities Management was installing new signs. It would not have been a problem except they parked their truck in the middle of the bus terminal exit, meaning any bus leaving would have to back out before continuing on its way. I watched this happen for 10 minutes before growing bored with the whole affair.

If having to deal with that annoyance was bad enough, once my bus was actually on the road, four people hopped on their cell phones and yakked away. One girl sitting near the front was laughing and talking so loudly, I though she lost her mind. Another person in the back of the bus was also talking away on her phone-- though not as obnoxiously. Yet another person in the back of the bus was talking loudly on HIS cell phone. And to top it off, one more person just two seats ahead of me was on her phone as well. I could hear what all four of them were talking about, yet I have no idea what they were talking about. Something along the lines of:

"I'm on the bus now, heading to the train station... what are you doing?"

"Yeah, I saw that last night, it was funny...(laughs hysterically)"

"No I didn't... you did! You're so crazy, fool..."

Four conversations, four loud voices, and a rumbling bus made for a very unpleasant ride to the 65th Street light rail station. I finally had enough and put on my headphones and turned up the volume.

The last time I had this much fun on the bus ride home, a woman threatened to kill the bus driver because he sped past her bus stop one day...

Light rail is unhealthy transportation

noreply@blogger.com (Sally King) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:43:00 +0000

When I started planning for my first year as a transfer student to Sac State last year, I decided, instead of driving to school, I would take light rail.

I knew light rail was part of my tuition fees and both my youngest daughter and my niece said the parking is awful at Sac State, so my decision seemed easy and logical.
Also, I consider myself to be conscious of ways to keep from doing too much harm to the earth and thought having one less driver on the road is helping our planet.
What I didn’t realize was how unhealthy riding light rail can be.

Waiting for the train, people are smoking and smashing their butts into the sidewalk. Not a pretty sight. I try to find a spot where I’m not inhaling smoke, hard to do. Then after I board the train, I get to sit next to someone that reeks of cigarette smoke. By the time I get to my destination my lungs are burning and my nose is completely stuffed up.

Getting off the train, I once again have to try and dodge the smoke. And, of course, walking from 65th Street to the campus, I get to inhale exhaust fumes from the hundreds of cars driving by.

To be continued…

UTAPS objects

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Just because it's the cover of night doesn't mean you won't get a ticket. What I don't get about this one is that there was plenty of open parking in the staff/faculty lot.

The best part was when I asked the UTAPS worker who was writing the ticket if I could get a picture of his truck in the background. No, that was not acceptable. His supervisor had expressly told him to not let things like that happen. I'm guessing our post with the picture of the UTAPS truck is a definite violation.

Jog your commute?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:54:00 +0000

The Sacramento Bee's Sam McManis ran an interesting article today on a rare commuting niche: the route runner.

Apparently, there's a small group of commuters in the region - mostly marathon enthusiasts - who run their commute home and back. Doesn't sound too bad, until you realize some of these folks are running 36-mile round trips five days a week.

Wait, what?

Surely not for everyone, but as a insouciant runner, the story made me perk up. The article caught my attention in the same way Japanese author Haruki Murakami's mini-memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running made me take note.

Admittedly, Murakami's book is still on my reading list and you won't see me jogging my way to campus any time soon. But I can agree the idea of the commute jog is novel. And as McManis coyly notes, cycling is soooo 2007.

You probably won't see the fixie kids giving up their bikes for a fresh pair of New Balances, but as the article observes, jogging subculture is as vibrant as any other fitness-oriented subculture. It just happens to be a little sweatier.

Who knows, maybe this will be more common at Sacramento State when they get that Recreation and Wellness Center up and running. Assuming of course, the center has public showers.

UTAPS' off-road parking squad

noreply@blogger.com (sam pearson) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:50:00 +0000

Sacramento State has to have the only parking enforcement squad (meter maids, essentially) that uses large pickup trucks, of all things.

This begs the obvious question: why?

It's hard to see how this makes it easier for them to navigate the rugged Sac State campus, not to mention the whole gas guzzling thing.

So what could these trucks prove useful for?

Well, UTAPS can drive off road and look for cars parked illegally in creeks. If someone parked a boat in Parking Structure II and didn't have a valid permit displayed, UTAPS could slap a $35 ticket on it and tow it away.

If a walrus swam up the American River from the bay and then wandered onto State University Drive East, UTAPS could swoop in and throw it in the back.

Does President Gonzalez need help moving?

Faculty/staff parking disaster

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:14:00 +0000

We all know the feeling. It's five minutes before class and you're trying to squeeze your car into an impossibly tight space while an angry line of students honk at you to hurry up your delicate maneuver.

Yes, student parking can be a nightmare at Sac State, especially when you come out of class and find someone has completely scraped the side of your car while trying to park next to you. This example is taken from personal experience.

In the faculty/staff parking there are never instances of this. These are responsible and mature adults, highly skilled in the art of college parking. Right?

Wrong. This picture proves it.

This was not the case of the honking students and ridiculously tight space. I can understand parking a little crooked or crossing the line, but taking up two spaces? That is pushing it. Especially when the spaces are the width of a freeway lane. I wonder if this person got a call that the Hornet Bookstore was burning down. They were in quite a hurry.

I took this picture at 8 a.m. and then nosily checked back seven hours later. There was no ticket.

Don't we all wish we could risk the hefty fine and park in two parking slots for the day?

Air conditioning is awesome

noreply@blogger.com (sam pearson) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:58:00 +0000

Wikipedia tells me that people moved to Sacramento in large numbers because of Sutter's Fort and the discovery of gold. Since then, though, the most important amenity has clearly been the air conditioner.

Even light rail has it, and my apartment. My car, however, does not.

As a former Bay Area resident/out of state college student in Montana (where winter seems to last at least 8 months), this was never a problem before. As a resident of Sacramento for almost a month now, it's kind of irritating.

I'm pretty sure that a few years ago as a high school student, I actually said that driving a car with no air conditioning would be fine since "it's not like I live in Sacramento or anything." Who knew, right? Now I live in what I've thought for most of my life was basically the state's huge oven/furnace valley.

Luckily the warmest part of the year seems to be over. But still - warm weather is lame. Fresh air is way overrated.

Enter the Portable Air Conditioner. The stuff of dreams? No, apparently people actually sell these. Suggested uses include camping and picnics, as well as more practical ones like during hurricanes.

But seriously, throwing a picnic cloth across some grass and then blasting the battery powered air conditioner? What kind of a picnic is that?