It's My Ride: Sara Duncan

South Salem resident Sara Duncan begins each morning with an invigorating 10-minute walk to her bus stop.

While she has a car, she prefers to take public transportation. She describes the experience as liberating and appreciates Cherriots for its clean buses, friendly drivers, and free WiFi.

“I genuinely prefer taking public transportation over driving myself, which is not generally an American ideal,” she said. “Driving is a waste of time. On the bus, I can read, relax, catch up on life.”

The energy and optimism Duncan exudes when she talks about everything from family and friends to food and public transportation is infectious.

She describes herself as a seasonal user of public transportation. “A lot more in the fall and when it gets icy,” she said.

She describes the addition of later evening and weekend service as ideal for getting together with friends. But her primary use is getting from her home, which she shares with her husband and two dogs, to her job. She is the head of sales and marketing for Sassy Onion. Eventually, she would like to own a restaurant.

“I love working in the food industry,” said Duncan. In college she worked in restaurants as a server and a hostess.

Her sights, however, were not always on the food industry. She was on track to medical school when a life-changing health diagnosis redirected her course.

“During my senior year I was diagnosed with narcolepsy,” she said. “I know that people with narcolepsy can be doctors but I decided this was not the path for me. So now I have a biology degree that I currently do not use except to bore relatives with facts about the environment at Thanksgiving.”

Duncan is a proponent of public transportation but she is also an advocate and wants Cherriots to thrive. She sees herself on the Cherriots Board of Directors in the near future.

“I know that’s what I’m going to do,” she said. “I’ve got so many ideas.”