 I
wish I knew what it was that made people (meaning non-bus riders) think
that transit was such a great thing. Recently there was a big deal
made out of a "Go Green!" event in my fair city. Our office participated
and we were awarded enviro-points for our efforts. Don't get me
wrong, I think it's a great idea, and I even helped to organize our paltry
effort. But it was only for a day, and the casual participants received
recognition (and in some cases prizes) for (gasp) making the unheard of
sacrifice of carpooling for one day or even (gasp gasp) taking . . . THE
BUS! I'm pretty sure that all of the big cheese heads at transit HQ take their own little cars to work each day. I'd go one step further, I bet the bus drivers drive themselves to work; then after a hard day of driving other people to and from work, drive themselves home. Why don't these modern green knights follow their own environmental advice? Oooh ooh, I know. Because it sucks. Not a lot of prestige associated with transit. When's the last time you heard someone say “Hey, I rode on that new bus they got. Man what a beauty.” Doesn't happen. I even have a theory about physical positioning on the bus. There are enough riders to take a representative sample of the population as a whole and make a few basic assumptions on this self contained microcosm. When one looks over the standard curve of the results, and taking into account those statistical outliers an interesting thing occurs: Buses are a rolling caste system. The front of the bus is for the elderly and families, the middle of the bus, professionals and others that can drive but are forced to take transit, then there's the back where I like to slum (well and the fact that there's more leg room doesn't hurt). This is where all of the societal detritus congregates. I've have heard conversations and seen people that make my heart ache. Each one of those people was at one time a small bundle of hope joy and potential. Yup, a bus is just a moving microcosm. If there are aliens out there they could do worse than to suck up a bus and take it back home for testing and evaluation. Meanwhile I continue to take the bus, sit at the back, and sing softly to myself, "The wheels on the bus go round and round . . ." Jevster,
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