Phoenix Zoo originally uploaded by LightRailBlogger.

The missing art at the McDowell station (post)

The late night light rail service makes the city come alive, but only temporarily (post)

No car, no bike… (post)

Surviving the heat (post)

Going carfree (post)

I realize these two goals together may seem odd, so here’s the backstory…

You may have seen in my video blogs (video widget to the right) which detailed how much money I spent during the month of October using alternative modes of transportaton – namely the Zipcar. As I mentioned in my vlog – I love the Zipcar convenience, but if you’re trying to save money, it’s probably not a luxury you should rely on every day.  So I decided I’m going to track my spending for the month of November as well, just to prove I can live carfree without spending close to $500 on a Zipcar.

So just how is November going so far, you ask??  Excellent! Last night was my first test.

You see, I won a trivia contest Thursday morning on the Visit Phoenix Facebook fan page.  The prize? Two tickets to the Celebrity Chef Tour at the Phoenician Resort. The resort is not light rail convenient – in fact it’s about 10 miles from my place in Downtown Phoenix.  I thought about getting a Zipcar to pick up my friend Taylor for the event, but she offered to come get me. Awesome!  Goal number one – accomplished.  Taylor saved me about $30 on a Zipcar.  Thanks, Tay!!!

As for goal number two (a picture with Jean-Georges) –  that was looking iffy for most of the night.  However, I needed some visual material to blog about so I decided to take pictures of the five courses. Each one more fabulous than the one before.

Tuna ribbons in an avocado ginger marinade…

Nage of Dover Sole….

Roasted Squab…

Taylor and her Tenderloin…

And to top it all off… a green apple crisp with cinnamon ice cream.  Thank you so much, Visit Phoenix!!!  The evening was amazing.  The food – fantastic!! BTW…this is how I picture heaven.  And just as I was about to dive into my apple crisp… look who walks up to the table…

It’s none other than Celebrity Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten (left) and Host Chef Paul Carter (center) standing next to Taylor.  I was totally ok with her being in the picture and not me.. I’m just glad I got a picture of the headliner!!!  Woot!!!

However, just as we were about to call it a night… all the celebrity chefs came out for one last round of applause.. and one last opportunity for Taylor to get a picture of me with Celebrity Chef Jean-Georges…

Mission accomplished.  See what can happen when you set goals?

Living carfree is soo much fun.

I first mentioned the iPhone application here, which features an augmented reality function according to the website Discover Anywhere Mobile.  AR is relatively new technology which allows users to look through the lens of their cell phone camera to see names of nearby points of interest.  The Discovery Anywhere site says the app can provide detailed listings for rail, light rail, subway stops and airports across North America. Underneath a series of screencaps showcasing the application, the website displays logos of current transit agencies around the country.  Phoenix Valley Metro’s logo is one of them.  Does that mean Phoenix will soon see this particular app in iTunes?

“We just have METRO light rail stations encoded, plus some information we’ve taken from Wikipedia,” writes David Janes of Discovery Anywhere in a comment to my post.  A follow up email from the official spokesperson confirmed the comment by Janes.

In addition to the comment, Janes left a link to a picture showing what the app might look like for Phoenix.  Discovery Anywhere has given me permission to post that picture below.  In a follow up email, I’m being told the picture is not a mockup but the real thing.

“If the app is successful, we’ll probably start integrating more Google Transit features,” says Janes.  ”This will depend on Phoenix ending up here.”   Janes points to the list of cities that provide Google with their bus and train schedules, which allows Google to then give passengers step by step instructions on how to get to their destination, similar to Google maps.  Phoenix does not provide Google with transit information.  Instead, Valley Metro uses a system called ShareTheRide which you can read about here and here.

So will we ever see Google transit in Phoenix?  There’s a possibility.

“We have had internal dialogue about using Google Transit,” says METRO spokesperson Hillary Foose.  ”(and) opening up our scheduling data for these kinds of formats.”

Hmm…to be continued.