I swear it feels like yesterday when I was standing in my kitchen, looking out the window, and listening to my editor tell me about how she screws up her kids' grilled cheeses.

"One side is always black," she said, or at least something like that.

"Yeah, me, too," I said. "I'm too impatient, I get the pan too hot."

We continued about grilled cheese for a bit until she mentioned a story idea about the bus. It was in passing, and we went on to other ideas, and more talk about grilled cheeses.

Later that day I thought about what she said, about the bus idea. She said something like; "We want you to give up your car for a week." It was a great idea, I thought. A lot of work, but a story that should be told.

I guess it's a simple thing. Just get on the bus, pay, and get off. But here in Detroit, it's not as simple. There is a lot of stigma attached and a lot of apprehension. I found, though, after one ride, most of that goes away.

I took the idea and expanded it to a month.

Excerpt:

I told a friend when this first started that I wondered if when people saw me waiting for the bus, getting on, or getting off, they thought, "I bet he doesn't have a car," or "I bet he doesn't have a job," or "I bet he doesn't have a car or a job."

Why would I think that? When I am in New York, Chicago, or Berlin, that kind of thing never crosses my mind when I see people using mass transit. In those cities, you don't think twice about using the bus. But here, in Detroit, I wondered what people thought when they saw me at the bus stop the first few times I rode. Did this self-consciousness come from the disappointing attitudes of a racially polarized region? Or having the merits of owning an automobile burned and beaten into our Motor City brains? Or from the anti-urban sentiments in a region that views anything that smacks of city life – like using mass transit – as subpar to the suburban, strip mall, McMansion lifestyle?

These issues have been tearing Detroit apart for decades, and they still find a way into the smallest of things – like riding the bus.

Here is my story in three pieces; my pure experiences, a how-to guide, and improvements that need to be made.