From Work - 11.29

Again it was a pretty smooth ride from work today. It seems I've got a pretty good routine down. And when you're not worried about "Am I on the right bus?" or "Why's the bus stopping here?" you can dwell on more philosophical things.

On the R5 (from my office to downtown) there was a lively chat going on between the bus driver and a man sitting in the front seat. Well, it wasn't so much of a conversation as the man telling the driver stories from his life. This got me thinking. I've seen someone chatting with the bus driver every trip thus far. I may be reading a bit into it, but it seems to me that not only is the bus a means of transportation for some people, it's also their daily support group, psychologist visit, speed dating event, or just gossip group. This is something I think gradually going the way of the buffalo: personal social interaction. We have to be careful in an age of instant messages and text messages that we don't loose this great way to get emotions out.

Ok, before I get to deep and preachy, lets switch the topic back over to the bus system. Now, I bought this weekly pass, which has been great. But I don't think, if I wanted to maybe ride the bus a couple days a week due to my demanding workload, it would be practical.

The other option I seem to have found at this point is just paying by the ride, $.75 each. The problem with this is that I hardly ever carry cash on me let alone exact change for a bus fare. There's a great solution JTA could implement. This weekly pass, I swipe in a little card reader when I get on the bus. I don't see why JTA couldn't make a card like those at Starbucks where you add money too it and then just take off what you need each time. Now, they may have already implemented this, but I haven't heard about it. I don't profess to be a research journalist. This leads me to the last thing I mulled over on the way home.

I think some of the problem with commuters not using the bus system could be that most don't know about its details. This ignorance leads to trepidation. I guess it's up to brave explorers like me to bring back moon rocks to show the Earthlings, or more like information and experiences to share with citizens. Either that or maybe there’s some good marketing campaign JTA could do to just raise awareness and ease of use for professionals.



Well, sorry for the lack of pictures so far. There just hasn't been much new for me to photograph on this ride that you haven't already seen. The one great thing about Wednesdays is Hungry Howie's Wacky Wednesday $4.99 Large Cheese pizza special. So here's a pic of me ordering pizza on the ride home (yes, Hungry Howie’s is on speed dial) and the resulting treasures.



Tomorrow I'm going to mix things up a little bit so stay tuned because it could get interesting.