April 18, 2024

Let’s Go: The Story of goDCgo’s Captain Commute

by Necole Jackson

The Prequel

Captain Commute’s parents met in a rideshare (aka carpooling) after leaving both of their respective offices in Downtown DC. Afternoon traffic in the city proved to be a nightmare and parking was limited, so rideshare allowed them to commute home easily while saving money. As soon as Laney Trainor saw Scooter Walker, it was love at first sight. Laney soon found out that Scooter loved to take Lyft scooters around the city, and as an avid bike rider exploring the District’s new bike lanes, she found they both loved to be on the go. From there, the rest is history. Scooter and Laney got married during the summer and soon were expecting their first child.

Before they knew it, Laney and Scooter were rushing to Children’s Hospital to deliver their son. Trip Eazee Walker was born wearing a beautiful onesie with the words, “Let’s Go!”, his father’s favorite thing to say every time he got on a scooter.

The Story Begins

Trip was born a normal child, or so they thought. When he turned five, he started gaining supernatural abilities. His enhanced sense of smell always bothered his allergies; while the normal person couldn’t, he could smell the carbon in the air. He also gained super hearing, which started to bother him as he could notice traffic and cars honking at all hours of the day and night, which hurt his ears. But that was just the beginning. Soon he heard a plant complaining about all smog in the air, and that‘s when he discovered he could talk to cherry blossom trees! Throughout his childhood, he discussed numerous topics with the beautiful pink trees. He talked to them about the Earth’s condition, the air, rain, and how he could help all trees in the future.

As years past, Laney and Scooter never knew about their son’s superpowers. Trip tried his best to hide them even while gaining more abilities, like learning how to fly and developing superhuman strength. To protect his true powers, he decided to be different than his parents and embrace a car lifestyle, even though it was the very thing that produced his allergies and hurt his ears.

 It wasn’t until Trip turned 22 after finishing college at Georgetown University that he realized his true purpose. Hiding his abilities at college made him late everywhere he went. Although his parents taught him how to ride a bike and scooters, Trip had a car and drove everywhere, which made him late. He missed the start of every movie, the beginning of every brunch, and the first part of every party. Finding parking, paying for gas, and seeing his plant friends wither away had poor Trip at his wits end.

One fateful day, after dropping his car off at the garage, he stumbled onto a SmartTrip card laying on the ground. Being an upstanding citizen, he went to a Metro station to turn it in and was informed by the station manager that the mysterious card had no owner. 

“I have no time to deal with this and need to get to work,” Trip emoted.

“You can use the card to take the Metro,” the station manager said, pointing to a map.

“Why, this line goes right by my office… and this one goes by my home…”

“Sounds like we have you covered,” the woman in the booth chimed in happily.

“But I also need to visit my mom this weekend. Metro won’t take me there,” Trip replied as he pointed to the map. 

The woman in the booth smiled broadly as she pulled out a bus schedule. “There is more to transit than that…”

With a world of transit options opened up for him, Trip immediately developed super intellect, making transit connections in his head. He could see paths he had never considered. There were routes to and from places that he had never been before. No more sitting in traffic or fighting for a parking spot; he could just hop on transit and go! From there, Trip decided to embrace his abilities and help everyone see the gift of sustainable transportation by becoming Captain Commute!

Sustainably Ever After

Captain Commute used his cleverness to help people save money month by month by using sustainable transportation and commuter benefits. He was resilient and determined to make sure there were less cars on the road, and in turn, less pollution. His mission was to make DC a greener, cleaner place, not only for his plant friends, but for his human friends as well. His passion for encouraging DC residents of all ages to try sustainable transportation led Captain Commute to excitedly yell, “Let’s Go!” just like his father. Through this transit hero, DC is becoming greener, brighter, and healthier  year after year.

Characterizations of our hero:

• Cleverness with helping people save money month by month.
• Resilient when making sure there are less cars on the road and decreasing pounds of pollution.
• Feels responsible for making DC a greener, cleaner place.
• Always doing his part to help DC residents.
• Tenacity in knowing how to get around the city and the different modes to get people to and from.
• Creativity in helping reduce SOV usage in transit deserts.
• Passionate in helping DC residents, from adults to children, to try sustainable transportation. 

Powers:

• Ability to fly
• Superhuman strength
• Superhuman transportation intelligence
• Talks to plants – can talk to plants about the Earth’s condition; did that as a child
• Enhanced smell – can smell the carbon in the air from having allergies as a child
• Super hearing – can hear traffic at all times of the day, which hurt his ears