elainajohann_threedaysthreeways

One Route: 3 Ways/ 3 Days

Way/ Day One: 9/07/12, 10:10 PM by car

            When I first took my route it was on a Friday night, an unplanned event that I would be riding in a car.  Sense the only means of transportation I have are walking and the bus (aside from crawling or skipping or galloping, which I wasn’t particularly fond of using), I realized soon after my trip that I should use this as the first of my three ways. Even though the car was taken on North Van Buren Street from East Claybourn Street to Brady Street, the area I am focusing on is only from East Ogden Ave to Brady Street while on Van Buren. Like most rides as a back seat passenger in the car, I wasn’t giving what was outside the car my full conscious attention. It is more of an unconscious attention of what is happening on the outside. Being 10:10 at night, it was dark outside. Darkness add an element of unknowing. Making my surroundings be something almost completely different from what they looked as in the day time. This route was one that I don’t think I had ever taken before, and it wasn’t until we were about a block from Brady St. that I was a hundred percent sure where I was in Milwaukee.

Way/ Day Two: 9/10/12, 5:45 PM by bus

            On my second way/ day, I took the 15-bus route from MIAD to Brady focusing on the section on N Van Buren between Ogden and Brady. This being the part were my two trips intersect. The bus ride was different from my first mode of transportation. I was focusing very intently on everything that was happening around me, on the bus and outside. The first thing I noticed was the noises of the bus. Quiet as fare as bus rides go, no one talking just muffled sounds of one person’s music through headphones. The people on the bus to me, looked mostly as if they had just gotten off of work, and to my assumption on their way home. Dressed in business casual and tired from the day of work. The other thing that came to my notice is that mostly everyone on the close to full bus was African American, aside from myself and two other women.  Not knowing where the bus goes and knowing that Milwaukee is a highly segregated city, my conclusion came to this route goes through a highly African American populated area of Milwaukee. On the outside I didn’t notice very much, just some people walking around on the sidewalks. Before I knew it, it was time to pull the yellow cord.

Way/ Day Three: 9/11/12, 11:00 AM by foot

            The last time I took my route was by walking.This way/ day was a completely different experience than the first two times. I was more aware of my what was going on in the environment around me.  Maybe it was because I had never walked down this street, but the whole time I felt very out of place. At the start of my walk there were a couple people around here and there. As I went along the amount of people got fewer. During the second half I didn’t even pass a person nor was anyone walking on the other side of the street. There were only a couple people standing in front of their houses. I found this strange that the closer I got to Brady the less pedestrians there were out on the sidewalks. But once I was on Brady there were a bunch of people. Then the other things I was aware of were the buildings. At the start of the walk they were a bit larger, more building like. To then end the street was made of mostly residential houses or duplexes.  For some reason this area felt very odd or more out of place, when in comparison to the areas around. It is a transition between the more city like area and a residential area.

            All together the three days/ways came together to make an experiences that were very unique to the way I see the city. Each time I was aware of something unusual, noticed something new, and realized how the mode of transportation I took made a difference in how I experienced the way.