Day 8: Rules

There are a lot of do's and don'ts on the bus.  Some official rules:   No eating, no drinking, no loud music, leave the front seats for elderly and disabled.  Some unofficial rules: don't sit right next to a person if there are open rows, smile at babies but not at old men....

There is one rule that was blatantly broken today: No animals on the bus (except for service animals).

See that box?  It's filled with chickens.  LIVE chickens.  If the driver knew what was in there, she ignored it and luckily these guys got off the bus after 2 stops.

Day 6: 7 20- reasoning

Of all the challenges that come with riding the bus, the most difficult for me is getting people to understand why I ride the bus.   My reasons for riding the bus are three-fold:

1.  Because I can.
2.  Environmental consciousness: Some of our buses are green, but in addition I'm keeping one car off the road and taking advantage of a system already in place.
3.  The schedule fits my own.

I am riding the bus even though I can still afford gas money.  I am riding the bus even though I have a car that runs perfectly fine (well as fine as a car with 107,000 miles on it).

Most of my coworkers and friends assume there is a reason for me riding the bus, something more substantial than I am riding the bus to ride the bus.  One co-worker asked me question after question trying to figure out what the deeper reason was for me riding the bus.  Is it expense? Is your car broken?  But why?  Why?

Now that am I bus rider, I have found a million other reasons to ride the bus.  It changes my perspective. I get to glance out a window or read a book on the way to work. I see and interact with people I would have never crossed paths with before.   It changes my stress levels. When I drive I am frustrated driving behind a bus, but when I am on the bus, I hardly notice the stops. I have a few more minutes a day to read, stare out a window, smile at strangers.  It's off my beaten path. My days are different now, the days I ride the bus I walk over a mile to and from the stops.  I plan  my days out better, I have to plan out my weeks better.

There are certainly some down sides to riding the bus, but the one reason everyone seems to gravitate towards is lack of freedom.  Yes, I am essentially stuck at work during the day and yes I am tied to the predetermined schedules, but that doesn't bother me at all.  There isn't anywhere that I would normally go that the bus can't take me.

The reasons to me are clear, if not understood by most.  

Day Four: 7 18- cheating?

Mondays are hard.  I almost always have a case of the Mondays.  It is harder for me to get out of bed than any other day of the work week and I struggle to get my stuff (literally and figuratively) together.  Riding the bus requires me to wake up and get moving 20-30 minutes than my typical morning, so you add that into typical Monday chaos and you've got a time crunch on your hands.

This Monday was no exception, gathering up lunch stuff, clothes for the trip to the gym, finding my bus passes that had arrived in the mail on Saturday, water bottles, fruit, etc.  By the time I got ready and got it all together- I had passed my departure time by 5 minutes.  But I was still dedicated to riding the bus, so I got a ride to ride the bus.  My husband graciously drove me to the bus stop.  Cheating? maybe.

Day Three: 7 15 -Commitment

After three days of riding the bus and loving it, I made a big commitment today.  I bought $45 worth of bus passes online.  That's 15 days of riding, 30 trips.  That's also the end of hunting for change, making sure I have the correct change.

There are several pass options: $45 for unlimited riding for a month, Full fare passes at $15 each, low income passes, Upasses for university kids, school passes for charter school kids, etc etc.  I opted for the Ful Fare until I see how often I will end up riding the bus.

For now I feel like I made a big step in my bus riding adventures: a commitment to continue!

Day Two: 7 14

It is amazing how quickly some activities become rote.  Day two of riding the bus, I already had the in-home prep work down, my walk timed and my change counted out.  Despite my comfort with those activities, I was still feeling trepidation about one bus riding right of passage:  Pulling the cord to request a stop.

The action is simple, you pull the cord when you want to get off.  But behind the action, my mind raced with questions and concerns:
When do you pull the cord?  Immediately after pulling away from the previous stop?  As you get closer to the desired stop? Do I defer until someone else (hopefully) pulls it?   My fellow bus riders where no help, they were all over the map.

This was an all evening ride concern, for my stop on my morning commute was the last stop of the line.  No need to pull the cord.  The bus driver stops the bus, opens the door and all remaining riders exit the bus. Fortunate for me that I only had to fret over the cord once a day.

Ultimately, I pulled the cord as we had fully pulled away from the previous stop, the prerecorded voice commanded "Stop Requested".

Day One, 7 13

My first day on the bus left me anxious and nervous, not unlike the first day of school.  I gathered everything I would need: my lunch for the day and money for the bus.  I headed out the door, walked to the stop and waited for my bus to arrive at 8:07am. 

Right on cue, the bus showed up, I pulled out my $1.50 and waited my turn to board.  I was delayed by a family exiting the bus.  A mother with 2 children under 4 was exiting the bus.  Stroller under arm, drink in hand, cell phone tucked in the crook of her head, the mother chatted away while getting off the bus.  Her older child crawled down the stairs, but the youngest, a girl maybe about 2 couldn't make it down the stairs.  But her mother, too busy talking and juggling, couldn't really pick her up either.  After a few struggles which led to the girl crying, the bus driver got out of her seat, picked up the child and handed her down to mother, all the while lecturing the mother about the importance about exiting the bus quickly, getting off the phone and handling her children as a mother should.

Welcome to the bus, Route 11, a no nonsense route.