The following is a guest posting from a participant of the recent program “Moving Stories:  Getting Around in Baltimore”, as part of MHC’s Practicing Democracy Program. Thank you, Jessica, for providing your reflections.

Listen to an excerpt of Jessica’s performance:  Jessica Keller, Moving Stories excerpt

I love to speak about all forms of transportation but what I love to discuss most is being car free.  So, when someone forwarded the “Moving Stories” opportunity to me, I applied right away.  I was a little anxious too because I work for a transit agency and being car free isn’t always pretty; I didn’t want to be seen as disparaging my agency.  What I saw was an opportunity to show regular people that other regular people, like myself, use mass transportation. As I mentioned, being car free isn’t always pretty but those ugly instances, in hindsight, tend to be pretty funny and make for great stories.

After telling my not-so-pretty story, I had the chance to discuss transportation issues with people who I ordinarily wouldn’t come to meet.  I hope some of those people will reconnect with me in the future to help make Baltimore a better place to travel around.

I’m curious……have you ever taken transit and if not, what would encourage you to do so? OR, are you car free and loving it too?  Can you imagine giving up at least one car?

Jessica A. Keller, Storyteller “Moving Stories”