Urban Commute Kit II

If you are not constantly adapting and moving forward, you are not getting better. As I noted in Lighter, I’m always focusing on efficiency and speed, and over the past six months I have tweaked yet again what I carry during my commute.

I detailed the basic idea of this approach back in 2017 in Urban Commute Kit, and in the years since I have updated that post a couple of times, but I think it’s time to write a more modern version of it mainly because I think the kit - as much as it remained the same - has changed enough and the approach has been tweaked just over that threshold where I think it’s different from the original.

The full kit, pictured above, has:

• A SureFire Backup flashlight: for light and also as a last resort weapon
• Tourniquet: because you need to stop the bleeding - I switched to carrying a Snakestaff ETQ
• A pouch with phone charger and a powerbank to charge the phone and occasionally my iPad
• A pouch with the E&E / Entry kit and emergency light
• Laptop - with or without its charger, depending on how light I need to go
• A Station XV Street Satchel - you can read more about it in Lighter

That’s all. Light, simple, and purpose-built.

For this small and lightweight kit to work two things need to happen: 1. you need to work on knowing the environment you'll be commuting to, its risks, and potential threats, and 2. have a plan and practice.

Practice is key, as the adage goes “Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. Having these tools, like the tourniquet or bogota lockpicks set, will not help you if you don’t know how to use them, especially under duress or stress. So perform the recon, practice with your tools, and without them. Force yourself to use your head to find alternative ways to solve problems.

The E&E / Entry Kit

The kit is simple. It has all the items you need to get into things, or out of things. It allows you to procure things and be able to reach places in emergency situations. If you are looking for a place to get them, check SEREPick, it’s the best out there.

The items in the kit:

• Quick Stick
• EZ Decoder
• Mini Combs
• Bogota Picks
• Mini Jigglers
• Handcuff key
• Photon emergency light

Again preparation is key. A Minimal Emergency Kit should be able to either provide you with emergency gear or enable you to procure them.

Medical

I moved away from carrying a tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, and Israeli bandage to only carrying a tourniquet. The reason is purely weight and the fact that I was having to replace the gauze often as its expiration dates were the issue. This is one of the points where I am revisiting my assumptions and I might go back to carrying the additional gauze and Israeli.

Done

Light is fast and fast is safe. That’s the approach.

As always, this is not static and the post might be updated again soon. You have to constantly strive for a better fighting position, and better change to come on top. If you are not doing this, thinking you are all you can be, then you’ve already lost.

That’s it.

Be safe and check the A Practical Guide to Staying Safe While Traveling and Commuting (PDF).