Charm City Circulator

Kathy Harget can afford a car. In fact, she used to own one. But the 39-year-old Hampden woman decided those wheels were a luxury she could do without. She sold her vehicle and has been car-less ever since - relying on a combination of bicycling, walking, public transit, friends' cars and short-term car-sharing through Zipcars. "I didn't know how long I would last, but it's been six years, and I have every intention of continuing to live a car-free life," she said. Harget is among about 43,000 Baltimore workers 16 or older without a car in the household, according to the U.S. census.

A new holiday light show will engulf Power Plant in a celebratory glow. There will be a lantern parade along the Inner Harbor promenade, a workshop to craft handmade ornaments followed by tree decorating, carolers, public cookie-decorating and rides for children in a trackless train. These are just a sampling of the events to be offered during a free, family-oriented festival called "It's a Waterfront Life. " The festival, sponsored by a consortium of downtown businesses, begins Friday and runs through New Year's Eve. "In the past, our members have each put on their own holiday activities," says Laurie Schwartz, executive director of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore.

The corner of Howard and Lombard streets has the potential to be the pulse point of a healthier city and region. This is where the proposed Red Line and the existing Light Rail line will directly connect, addressing two long-standing deficiencies with mass transit in this city: the lack of an east/west rapid transit line and the absence of a direct transfer between rail lines to create a true "system. " Baltimore and Maryland should consider taking this transfer point one step further.

If you haven't done so already, you should stop right now and read a piece by another young journalist from Baltimore, "Fear of a Black President," the September cover story by The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates. I'm serious. It's really good. Here's a paragraph break so that you know where to pick this up. Welcome back. Now as you'll recall, Mr. Coates points out the irony of America's first black president barely mentioning the subject of race at all. It's certainly an issue for other people.

Baltimore's free bus, the Charm City Circulator, takes on its newest destination next week, Fort McHenry. Beginning Monday, the route known as the Banner will begin linking riders from Light Street through the harbor and South Baltimore and Locust Point to the fort's gates. It will traverse a renovated Fort Avenue Bridge, which neighborhood activist Karen Johns successfully clamored to have repaired, in time for the Sailabration festivities this month. I've watched this novel bus system operate for nearly 30 months.

Most people use the Charm City Circulator to commute. But some people, a fraction of total riders, use it after 6 p.m., according to the Baltimore Department of Transportation. What for? The department doesn't know. It could be more commuting. I wondered, would it be possible to use it to barhop? Recently, I put it to the test. The challenge: five bars, one night, using only the Circulator as transportation. My only rule was to have only one drink at each bar. Within five minutes at my first stop, I'd had four.

Theresa Kelly figures she's saving $550 in parking by taking the Charm City Circulator from her home in Harbor East to the University of Maryland nursing school. Courtney Kellum uses the "wonderful" service every day, hopping on the free bus in Mount Vernon to get to her job at the Kona Grill on Pratt Street. Navy veteran Tom Ryan rides it between the homeless shelter where he stays and the Veterans Administration on Greene Street. The three Baltimore residents are among the thousands who have come to depend on the Circulator, which made its debut on the streets of Baltimore a year ago Tuesday.

Can the Circulator be your designated driver? Well, sort of. When the Charm City Circulator launched in January, most people saw its potential to get commuters from one end of downtown to another, to transport tourists and to help out the environment with hybrid transportation. Kate Hendrickson and her friends saw its potential for something else: barhopping. After all, the Orange route, and later the Purple route, go by some of the bar-heaviest neighborhoods in the city. Hendrickson , a 25-year-old publicist who also uses the bus to get to work, organized a large bar crawl she and her friends dubbed the "sparkulator" that took them to 12 bars in one night.

Since the city of Baltimore went into the bus business with the free Charm City Circulator in January, its service has gained steadily in popularity, exceeding ridership expectations. Now if only it could get the buses to run on time. With two routes up and running, the Circulator is transporting more than 4,000 passengers a day on its "cleaner, greener" new hybrid diesel-electric buses. During the two weeks that ended Aug. 6, it averaged 5,132 riders a day — or about 35,000 a week.