The Wheels on the Bus

I drove to the nearest Park and Ride today so that I could catch a bus to go to Professor MacPherson’s last-minute review session/ make-up class. I drive to the same Park and Ride every day. It’s only three minutes from my apartment, and if they ever fix the tunnel, it would be a five minute walk. I park there and catch one of the main bus lines into town for classes. I could also get a bus that stops directly in front of the house, but it comes every 40 minutes and the busses on the main line come every 15-20 minutes. I choose the convenience of the Park and Ride for now. When it gets warm again, I’ll probably switch to the other bus. Or I may start taking another bus that would require me to walk three blocks over to catch it, but runs every 20 minutes and runs much later in the evening than the other two. The main line bus takes about 18 minutes to get to school, the bus in front of my apartment takes about 25 or so, and the bus three blocks away takes about 20 minutes. Lots of good options, which is a pleasant change.

So anyway, I waited in the shelter for maybe five minutes before the bus came. I got on along with two other women. There were two women already on the bus. This, too, is a pleasant change from the ride I take on days when I have to be in early. Those mornings, my bus ride coincides with the big commuter rush. I end up parking all the way at the back corner of the parking lot, have to walk a good five minutes to the stop, and then you have to shove to the front of the line if you want to have any hope at all of getting a seat. Some mornings, you can be the first person on at that stop and you’d still be out of luck. Most days it gets so crowded that people cram in the aisles all the way to the back of the bus and even the people sitting down end up with other peoples’ backpacks and briefcases banging into their shoulders. Some days it’s bad enough that the driver has to stop letting people on before we’re even halfway to school (which is where most of the people on the bus are heading), and some poor people have to stand at the stop and watch the bus breeze by. It’s a pain in the butt, but it’s the most convenient line to get home in the evening, so I put up with the morning stress.

The six of us were scattered around the bus, reading magazines, looking out the windows, reviewing notes for class. The driver stopped at the next stop and picked up one or two additional passengers. I barely even registered this. The next thing I knew, the bus was stopping at the side of the road in front of one of the Port Authority garages. The driver got on the Voice of God mike and advised us that we needed to disembark and switch to the bus in front of us. Sure enough, there was another bus with our route number at the berm just ahead. We gathered our belongings and marched along the narrow walkway to the new bus. The new bus pulled away, drove maybe 100 feet or so, then the driver turned into the entrance to the Port Authority garage. I started to wonder just what was going on. The driver was speaking softly into the CB, presumably communicating with the dispatch office, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. We stopped halfway up the driveway and sat there for several minutes. I started to worry that I might be late for the stupid review session/ make-up class.

Then the driver started the bus again. He pulled forward, then turned and stopped the bus in front of a line of garages. He was still taking into the CB, but had not yet made any sort of announcement to the passengers. Now, maybe I’m just picky or paranoid or something, but I would think that it would be appropriate to let your passengers know what is happening before you deviate from the normal route, especially if you’re planning to leave the public roadway. So we sat there for a minute, then he got on the Voice of God mike again and announced that we would need to get on (yet) another bus. We all filed off the bus and onto another that pulled up a few moments later. Thankfully, this one made it all the way in to school without further issue. Unfortunately, I was 15 minutes late for class. But then, seeing as Professor MacPherson has never given a useful lecture yet, it wasn't such a tragedy.