Transit Nightmare

[The Doctor]

There was a time when people would mention the word 'bus', and my heart would flutter with excitement, and I wouldn't be able to sit still. My Mum, brother and I would show up at the bus stop, and in what seemed like no time, we would be on the bus, heading to the public pool or the library. Fair was a dollar, and the drivers stuck to their route no matter how late they were - this was when 'late' meant they hit downtown at seventeen minutes past the hour instead of fifteen. Oh, how I miss those days...

 

In the small-ish city in which I live, the transit system is, in theory, a simple one. Buses congregate in the downtown square at 6:00am, and leave the square at 6:15. They reach the farthest extent of their route at about 6:28, then loop back to the square by 6:43. They wait a couple of minutes, then leave again. Lather, rinse, repeat until around midnight, the last bus shift leaving the square at 12:15am.

 

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, you couldn't be more wrong.

 

Those were the good ol' days. For the past ten years, the transit system in this lovely city of mine has slackened, to say the least. Bus drivers now stop to get coffee at every Tim Horton's they pass, regardless of how early or late they're running. When they get late enough, they'll stand at a stop until the next bus comes, then leave with that one, so there are two buses, both the same route, running at the exact same time.

 

A few months back, in an effort to cover the fact that the system blows, and the drivers don't follow any fixed schedule anymore, the Transit Authority came up with the NextBus system. Just like the transit system itself, it is quite ingenious, in theory. At every bus stop, instead of posting the times after the hour that bus is supposed to reach the stop, they post a four digit code and a phone number. You call the phone number from home before you leave, or from a cell phone once you reach the stop, it asks for the code, and once you've given it, the system connects to a high-tec GPS system that will tell you approximately how long it will be before the bus reaches the stop. Simple and brilliant, right?

 

Wrong. Half of the stops in town don't have either times or codes, and of the half that do have NB codes, half of those codes are thrown back at you as invalid when you type them into the system. And when you actually do manage to find a stop with a valid NB code, dial the phone number, and wait a few seconds while it connects, you get an unintelligible male voice asking for the stop number. You type that in, and you get a female voice, just as impossible to understand, telling you what route you've asked for and when the bus should be reaching the stop. At least, it will when your phone actually connects to the system, anyway. Most of the time, you get a busy signal, because the system is only built to handle a handful of calls at once, in a city of over 114 000 people.

 

As if that's not bad enough, the GPS system NextBus uses is so inexact that you'd have a more accurate idea of when the next bus will arrive by climbing onto the bus stop sign and watching for it. One minute, the system tells you it will be another hour before the bus will reach the stop (when the buses are still supposed to be on 30 minute shifts), the next, it says you've got 3 minutes to get to the stop, or you'll miss the bus. Other times, it'll tell you 3 minutes, then you get to the stop, and it'll say 20.

 

But wait, there's more!

 

Starting September 7th, the buses will officially be switching over to a 40 minute shift during 'peak hours'. This is said to enable students and the elderly to better make their transfer to another bus downtown easier to make. Sounds valid, right?

 

Except the whole reason that the buses get to the square late is because the driver can't wait to get his chubby little hands on his XL 4x4 and Bacon Breakfast Sandwich from Tim's, which he proceeds to eat while driving - bitching at anyone else who dares bring food onto 'his' $100 bus that we borrowed from a few towns over, because the city doesn't want to pay for new buses that actually have seats you can sit on, or an engine that doesn't deafen those inside and in the immediate vicinity when it pulls away from the stop it was late for. On top of that, these 'peak hours' that they're talking about run from 7:15am to 3:45pm, and 5:15pm to 9:45pm. So there's only a total of 5 hours in the entire day that aren't considered 'peak'. Anyone else see something wrong with that?

 

Since the good ol' days, fair has doubled, and drivers now deviate up to two blocks from their route if it gets them within sight of a Tim Horton's.

 

Public Transit sucks.

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

You could RABBLE!!!

rabblerabblerabble!!!

 

alternatively...

 

Get yourself a musclecar with so much power that the vibrations can bring a woman to... That's Quite Enough Of That!!! ~Jae "happy time" from 40 feet away.

Your ride will now be so engulfed in horny girls that you can't even move the car...

But why would you want to with all them around anyway?

 

I have solved your transit problems and brought new light into your world.

Good day sir!

 

You people are making far too much use of my name and mod-cyan postings. --Jae

 

Then thou shalt convert to the power of mod-PURPLE postings!!!

 

And just what do you mean by "you people" anyway?

I take offense at that on soooo many levels!

[SithRevan]

Well Doctor I have to agree with you. That does sound like quite hassle. The town in which I live actually has a pretty good bus schedule except for the fact it doesn't run on the weekends, nor does it run after about 6PM, and there is also the fact that the bus does not transport you anywhere except for in the town in which I live. Your trasit system seems much more inconvieniencing then mine does though. I hope they change what it is that they are doing in your town so your fair city can get to where they need to be on time without all of the hassles.

[Boba Rhett]

I haven't had to ride a bus in over fifteen years, thank God.

 

 

Can you bike?

[HerbieZ]

Try getting the 192 bus through Levenshulme. To put it bluntly, it's full of freaks. A 192 was torched last week whilst in motion, and several months ago one got a brick through the window to which the driver flinched, turned the wheel, ran over the brick-thrower and killed him. Oh and you are considered fortunate to have a seat which hasnt been puked or shat yes i said shat on.

 

My alternate route via the train was in the news just yesterday after pulling up at a station then being bombarded by rocks, bricks and paint.

 

You should be fortunate it's a time related problem and not a knife between the ribs related problem. Oddly, despite the violent pedestrians, the buses and trains are always on time.

[Commander Obi-Wan]

I used to ride a bus everyday. But, I walk to school and wherever else I can. Or bike.

 

Though, soon I am going to have to ride to bus to work since it isn't in walking distance and because winter is approaching and it's damn cold during the winter here.

 

Though, here, we don't have that problem regarding stopping when they see Tim Hortons or 7-Eleven. They have only ever stop when they are early (at least when i am on the bus). Though, I can agree with you that the fare prices are stupid. $38 a month for a bus pass... and the fare has increased about a dollar in the past five years. They seem to increase the fare about $0.25 every year.

 

I feel for you, mate.

 

I really need to get my Driver's license.

[The Doctor]

Oh, a bus pass in my town is $58. And that's for a student pass. Regular adult are $62, I believe.

 

And yeah, I could bike, but now owning a bike does tend to make it difficult. Not to mention the fact that I can't fit my girlfriend on it at the same time as myself, so picking her up on days we spend hanging out would be difficult. Especially since we've hung out every day all summer.

[Commander Obi-Wan]

Oh, a bus pass in my town is $58. And that's for a student pass. Regular adult are $62, I believe.

 

You can only buy student passes at schools here. During the summer, I had to get an adult pass, which was $58. Just too expensive IMO.

[Jae Onasi]

Here's a novel concept--make the bus drivers follow the schedule again.

[The Doctor]

That's what myself and the rest of the city have been saying. But nope, they've got to cover up the many ineptitudes of it's employees, because they don't want the bus drivers to quit or go on strike because they're being made to do their jobs.

[mur'phon]

Here's a novel concept--make the bus drivers follow the schedule again.

 

You truly believe in miracles

[Gargoyle King]

I prefer to walk to places (obviously if not too far beyond belief). If not a train willl suffice, i find them so much more relaxing than a bus (i don't know why, maybe i'm just wierd like that )

Here's a novel concept--make the bus drivers follow the schedule again.

I think buses are still gonna be rolling in late for years to come now. The situation's pretty much the same in the UK, you expect a bus at a certain given time as highlighted by the schedule and yet you wait and wait with sometimes no bus coming at all (in my own experiences). 'Tis another reason i prefer trains to the humble little bus, reliability

[The Doctor]

Oh, my town is the only city I know of with a transit problem this bad. I have friends in Toronto who have nothing but good things to say about their own buses. You stand at a stop, within ten minutes (at the most) and you'll be on a bus headed to the transfer station downtown. The drivers are corteous, below 300 lbs, and without lip and/or knuckle piercings. They get stabbed less often at night, too.