Mass Transit: A Look Elsewhere

I like to travel. Sometimes I get itchy and need to get away for a few days. I’m itching now and will be taking a few days starting tomorrow. The thing is, I’ll be driving. If you’ve read my other blogs, you already know I drive a Volkswagen Beetle, so fuel economy is pretty good. Plus, by riding the bus, I can afford a short trip every once in awhile.

When I travel, I try to pick cities that have decent mass transportation. I’ve seen both good and bad, rather horrible, so I thought I would write about my top three great experiences.

1. Seattle, King County Metro (http://transit.metrokc.gov/)
   Besides being an awesome area of our country, Seattle is home to one of the greatest mass transits that I know. The busses run on both diesel and electric, sometimes both, depending on the route; the drivers are friendly, sometimes even singing to patrons or pointing out landmarks for tourists; and they have a transfer policy that pales all by comparison.During the busiest times of day, drivers hand out slips of paper that indicates a two hour time period and that allows for a transfer to another bus or re-entry to the same bus. This is awesome for people who need to jump off for a quick grocery or laundry stop or for those who need to transfer to another bus route. IndyGo used to do this, transfers that is, but they charged you $.50. King County Metro is king!
2. San Francisco, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) (http://www.bart.gov/index.asp)
   First, what’s not to love about a city that has busses, subways, and trolleys! Oh, there’s also sunshine and mild temperatures, but hello trolleys!Their subways run from the San Francisco airport to downtown to Oakland across the bay…and actually beyond. It’s interesting in that you charge your pass with money and then depending on where you enter and then exit, the money is deducted. So, if you travel from Oakland to the city, the fee is more than if you traveled from downtown to Great American Ballpark, where the Giants play.The bus system travels just about everywhere, are relatively clean, and run on a pretty regular 30 minute cycle. The only bad thing, San Francisco is known for their homeless (just as Seattle is) and they tend to sleep on the busses…or they did when I was there…but they don’t bother you, they just want a warm place to sleep.

   Oh, did I mention trolleys? This is a great way to see the city. The trolleys are historic and come from various parts of the world, where mass transit has been the norm for awhile.

3. Chicago, CTA (http://www.transitchicago.com/)
   I like the fact that Chicago has an elevated train, the El, and that several of the trains make a circle around the downtown area. Sure, it’s loud and dirty, but it shows other large cities, like New York, that not everything needs to live underground.I also like that the trains pick up/drop off at the airports, always a plus for travelers and tourists, but that they go deep into the suburbs, even if you have to change routes. Plus, there are the busses (PACE) that pick up the slack.

   Additionally, there is the Transit Benefit Fare Program that gives employees, who ride transit, the opportunity to buy their passes with pre-tax income. Apparently, this a federal tax law designed to encourage mass transit usage. How is this being used in Indianapolis?

So you’re probably asking yourself, what about New York City? Well, their system is quite extensive and easily navigable, but it is large and quite possibly the oldest mass transit system in the U.S. It would take a miracle for Indianapolis to implement something on that scale. The three that I mentioned are doable. In fact, just improving IndyGo, ala Seattle Metro, would be a great start.

Sure, there are up and down sides to all examples and they are merely my opinion, but I ride transit in every city I visit. I encourage the executive, the mayor, and any other official to look beyond the Indianapolis metro area for examples. It’s not one size fits all, but it’s a start and that’s what we need.

When Bus Riders Attack

When I wrote the post When Bus Drivers Attack, I didn’t think I would have a whole series of “attacking” posts. However, in retrospect, it only seems appropriate that I cover all bases.

Last Saturday night, I boarded the bus after my night shift at the IU School of Medicine Library. (I am a deranged Librarian in training, hope to be fully deranged by May 2009.) The bus was fairly crowded for a Saturday night. By Ohio Street and Capital Avenue, the majority of riders exited to catch other busses and few riders remained. This would change shortly.

The next bus stop is Ohio Street and Illinois Street. On this night, there is a large group, mainly teenage girls, crowded in the shelter and spilling into the street. They are loud…excessively loud. In fact, after everyone boards and the bus pulls away, I noticed a police car swoop behind the bus. I can only imagine it was to help deaden the shrill laughter, shouting, and general noise wafting from this area. It was deafening, but most of the noise boarded the bus and immediately went to the back.

I was sitting in the middle, next to a window; but it felt like I was sitting in the back with the noise. I was a teenage girl once, but I was never that loud…or rude.

At Ohio Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, we pick up a couple extra people, one of which was a drunk middle-aged man. This man was equally as loud, but for different reasons. He egged on the girls. The noise level increased. I wished that I could leave, but I now had someone sitting next to me.

And then Hell broke loose…

The drunk middle-aged man called one of the girls a “Ho” and this girl ran to where he was sitting and began hitting him. The bus stopped. Cell phones opened and 911 was dialed. The bus driver had no control over the situation and many people were stuck in the middle, literally, between the group of girls and the drunk man. It was insanity at its finest.

We sit. We sit so long that the drunk guy had yet another opportunity to mouth off again…this time to another middle-aged man sitting in the noisey section with the girls. This man chased the drunk man off the bus, but we continued to sit. As we waited for the Police, the drunk guy showed up and began kicking the bus and hitting its windows. It was like being on a demented amusement ride, but this one didn’t seem to have an end.

Finally, the Route Supervisor and the Police arrived. The Route Supervisor boarded the bus and reprimanded the girls. I kept thinking to myself, “Kick them off. Just kick them off.” No such luck.

There is one thing I’ve learned when dealing with teenagers, they fear nothing. Idle threats do nothing to squealch their behavior. In their world, there is only black and white…on and off…yes and no. There is no gray area and idle threats are gray.  For some reason, the bus driver did not feel empowered enough to kick them off the bus. Sure, calling the Route Supervisor was a great idea. Calling the police was an even better idea, but the girls should have been removed and their parents called. Detain each girl until their parents come to pick them up, teach them a lesson about how to ride the bus, and how to act in public.

Interesting note, the drunk middle-aged man was picked up by police for public intoxication. The girl that hit him was free to roam and ride the bus another day.

I boarded the bus at 9:07 that night. I exited the bus at 10:11. I was never so happy to be home.

When Busses Attack

A few weeks ago, on a blustery Saturday, I sat at the intersection of Indiana Avenue and 16th Street waiting for the traffic light to change. Diagonally across the street, there was a guy jumping and waving his arms wildly. Ocassionally, he would lurch into traffic, making drivers stop quickly. Looking around, I saw the bus slowly starting as it had also been stopped at the light. I figured to myself that the guy wanted to board the bus.

As the bus passed the intersection and approached the guy, the bus stopped. At the same time, my light turned green and I also passed through the intersection.

I drove past the bus and noticed that the guy was now laying in front of the bus on the asphalt and the bus’s front windows were shattered. I pulled my car to the side of the road and stopped to help.

I talked to the bus driver, who said the guy jumped in front of the bus. This didn’t surprise me since his behavior had been so irratic. The guy laid howling in pain, other drivers stopping to call the police, gawkers slowing traffic to a crawl.

Next, without warning and with a mention of the police, the guy jumps up and runs to the sidewalk where he falls down. He jumps up again and begins to run down the street. By running, I really mean hobbling as he was clearly hurt and bleeding from his head.

One of the onlookers jumps into her car and follows him down the street, where he apparently jumps into the backseat of an unlocked car. At the same time, the car owner opens the front door of her house and brings the guy inside. The ambulance and fire truck show up and go down the street to the address in question…the police still have not arrived.

People are whispering about the oddity of it all, me included. Thirty minutes later, the police arrive. They talk to the driver, they talk to the IndyGo route supervisor. By now, I am the only witness remaining, but they do not ask to talk to me. One officer goes down the street to get the man out of the house. I leave my name and phone number with the route supervisor, just in case.

I have heard the phrase “throwing oneself in front of a bus”, but I’ve never seen it in action…strange things and strange people.

When Bus Drivers Attack

Bus driver violence, now that’s not something you read about everyday. However, I witnessed it about 7:54 AM on the Route 10. Here’s the scenerio…

 Crazy-Creepy Dude (CCD) boards the bus. (I’ll post more about CCD later.) Today he selects yet another bus stop to make his entrance. What he didn’t know was that Regular Driver was in absentia, but CCD walks past the new driver anyway. His normal M.O. is to find a seat, dig through his strange configuration of belongings, and eventually pay the fare or swipe his card. He carries a bunch of stuff, so the excavation takes awhile.

Since New Driver was working the route and not familiar with CCD, the bus doesn’t move and the driver turns into Princess Leia in Tiny Swimsuit Jabba. She yells, “Sir! The fare is $1.50!” CCD, still digging, seems completely oblivious to Jabba’s rants. I almost expected her to throw him from the bus. Time seemed to stand still. Finally, he finds his card and swipes it. Instantly, Jabba Driver berates CCD about the rules of riding the bus.

1. Enter bus.
2. Pay fare or swipe card.
3. Do not pass white line before completing #2.
4. Find seat.

I’m not going to condone CCD’s behavior, especially since I think Regular Driver is a little relaxed with him. However, Jabba Driver was already 10 minutes late picking me up and after the CCD escapade was 15 minutes late overall. When you have a busload of people trying to make it to work and school on time, there is no time to lash out and delay the process further.

To add further insult to this already strange bus ride, an elderly woman, who probably weighed 85 pounds dripping wet, boarded the bus. She followed the proper bus entering etiquette. Before she could sit down, Jabba Driver takes off making the elderly woman fall…luckily, the elderly woman was close to a metal pole that broke her fall. She’ll probably have a substantial bruise on her arm and maybe her back. This poor woman, dressed so nicely, just wanted to make it safely to work…and bless her for still working!

Jabba Driver, check yourself before you wreck yourself…or the bus!

Grammarians unite!

I must confess, I am a complete grammar geek. I love talking about grammar. I love picking apart sentences. Mostly, I love relating English grammar to foreign language grammar. Who can deny the lure of a gerund?

Tonight I sat in White Castle, munching my mini fish sandwiches, and discussed subjunctive mood verbs with a friend. But the discussion didn’t finish with subjunctive, I further confused my friend with a discussion of other verb moods, namely indicative and imperative. I also taught him the love of parsing a verb. This stuff gives me chills.

If you can conjugate verbs in Spanish, German, Latin, English, or another language, then join me. Grammarians of the world, unite! (How’s that for a conditional sentence followed by an imperative statement?)

Lloyd Dobler Effect

I must confess, I love John Cusack. I’m not stalkeriffic or anything, just enamored. He’s tall, intelligent, quirky and has hands that can palm a basketball with no effort. I am mature enough to know that he is not the personification of Lloyd Dobler, which is okay with me because I would prefer Martin Q. Blank from Grosse Pointe Blank, or better yet Rob Gordon from High Fidelity.

I recently saw the Inside the Actors Studio episode with John and decided that I wanted to hang out with him. You know, maybe catch a Cub’s game. There are a few people with whom I’d like to hang: Heidi Klum, Tori Amos, and John Cusask. I understand that it probably won’t happen, but a girl’s gotta have dreams.

So I started thinking, how many people are obsessed with John Cusask? Well, apparently there are many. In fact, one woman went far enough to be stalkeriffic. That’s above and beyond, in my mind. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the band, Lloyd Dobler Effect. They’re out of DC and are pretty good. Unfortunately, they seem to skip Indiana on their tours, so sad. I think their style is certainly worthy of a show at Birdy’s in Bloomington or the Music Mill in Indianapolis. It’s good stuff.