On the Topic of Local Travel

The past year has been one of many changes. Faithful readers will know that I moved across the country, switched to decafinated coffee and they might have surmised that I've been doing a bit more local travel than I have done in previous years.

The number of personal road trips that I've taken lately has been on the rise and professionally I've seen a shift in my travel responsibilities. Being in Boston puts me in close proximity to many of my current clients, and in the past 6 months I've been on three trips that are within 10 miles of my home.

Being able to hop in my car or catch a bus to work has been a big change for me. There are new logistical elements that I am now aware of though I don't have to worry about not getting a good night's sleep because the couple in the next room is "working on their night moves", hunt for a decent cup of coffee or wonder what surprises the TSA has for me.

Having regular snow is a new experience for me that I've become all too aware of this past few weeks. Fortunately, the area that I'm in has fairly good service when it comes to keeping the roads clear in the winter. Unfortunately, I still have to dig out my car after a storm. This isn't something that I've had to do until now, but I'm getting a lot of practice.

If a storm hits while I have one of these local trips, I will have to budget some extra time to dig out my car. This scenario can be dealt with, but I worry about driving my car someplace and having it buried while I'm working for the day. Public transportation is pretty good in this area, but I don't think it would be very fun to have to leave my car at a customer's site.

Bus schedules are another thing that I've had to learn about. It seems that while there is a schedule, the degree to which the schedule is kept varies wildly day to day. This is understandable but it would be nice if the buses could be spread out a little better in areas with infrequent service. An extra 25% is added to my commute time to account for schedule variations.

One of these days everything will go wrong: my car won't start, the busses won't be running on time and I'll be terribly late. I always have a contact number to use in case I am delayed, but I hate using it. In 6 years I've only used it twice. Once was because my flight was very delayed due to a snow storm and another time my coworker got us lost.

In order to avoid having to hastily assemble a plan when everything goes wrong, I'm thinking about it now and I could use your help. In addition to having copies of bus schedules and the phone numbers of taxi companies, how else could I be prepared? I suppose that an iPhone or similar device would be invaluable in such a situation, but I'm open to any other suggestions in order to be prepared.

Please let me know if you have any special plans for getting around your city when your primary mode of transportation fails. Thank you in advance for your help.

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