BIKE: commute advice: downtown to apple

[Michael Bluejay]

On Jan 26, 2005, at 7:02 PM, Jonathan Fretheim wrote:

> I'm starting a new job at apple up by the oak knoll exit off of 183.
>
> Does anyone have experience with a best route to get there from 
> downtown?
>
> I live around 18th and San Antonio (if you need a starting point).
>
> I'll probably bus & bike the first coupl'a days until I get the feel 
> of the place.  (as you know, sometimes a sweaty unfamiliar guy asking 
> where to change clothes isn't the best first impression you can make 
> with huge corporations).
>
> Anyway, thanks for any practical advice.


Not familiar with that area, but glad to hear someone else is biking to 
Apple.  I was about the only one who did so when I worked there, even 
though it was much more accessible (290 when I started, and then we 
moved down the road to E. Anderson Lane).

Let's hope your success is better than mine.  I rode my bike to the 
site the day before my job started so I knew I'd have the route down 
because there were lots of confusing turns through the neighborhood.  I 
thought I was set, but the next day, my first day of work, I missed one 
of those turns and wound up going in the opposite direction of where I 
needed to go.  I eventually realized it and turned my bike around, 
wondering if I could still arrive in time, when I got a flat.  I jogged 
my bike to a gas station and tried to call a cab but they wouldn't 
dispatch unless I had a street address; the street names of the 
intersection I was on wasn't good enough for them.  I asked them to 
hang on while I walked a few steps away from the phone to look for the 
address numbers on the gas station window, but when I got back to the 
phone they'd hung up on me.  I wound up locking my bike at the gas 
station and begging a ride from a guy there filling up his car.  I was 
substantially late which was embarrassing for my first day, but they 
apparently didn't hold it against me.

Apple had planned to move much farther north when I was there but they 
postponed it after Williamson County changed its mind about handing out 
tax breaks to Apple because Apple "supported homosexuality", since 
Apple granted benefits to same-sex partners of Apple employees.  I 
remember one of the commissioners who said, "I just know if I'd voted 
for this then people would have pointed at me and said, 'There's the 
man who brought homosexuality to Williamson County.'"

I was conflicted about that whole thing.   On one hand I didn't think 
that any local government should hand out be handing out corporate 
welfare, domestic partners program or not.  But the intolerance of the 
Wmson. County Commissioners bothered me. Though on yet another hand, 
the whole debacle meant that my commute for the five years I worked at 
Apple was much, much shorter than it would have been otherwise.

One thing that miffed me at Apple was that if you worked at the 
California campus you got credit in the employee store for every day 
you walked, bused, carpooled, or biked to work, but they gave no such 
credit for Austin employees.  I was surprised that the employee 
newsletter was candid about why:  They're required by law to take steps 
to decrease employees' car use in CA, but there is no such law in 
Austin or Texas.

If you're doing tech support I have some great tips for calming down 
irate customers, which probably won't be a part of your training.

-MBJ-

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