Watch Your Ride

I don't get it. I ride the bus every day and I'm always baffled as to why passengers thank the driver when they get off at their stop. Thank-you. Thanks for what? For letting me off the bus when I pulled the cord? For not getting into an accident along the way? For accepting my fare in the wake of increasingly poor service?

The bus driver is likely the highest-paid annual wage earner aboard the vehicle. He should be thanking US for giving him a cush job where he can sit all day long as he tools around town.

Pictured: a "600 series" GM motor coach, used by CDTA's private sector predecessor, United Traction Company. These small-diesel powered workhorses were so efficient and economical, they remained in daily use through the 1970s!

Let's see how many people are thankful come this fall when CDTA "revises" bus routes. Based on previous performance, here's what they'll possibly do:

(1) eliminate more bus stops like they've done in the past, especially where a disabled person or a small child may have been getting on, forcing them to walk a long distance under sometimes treacherous conditions to get to an "official" stop - especially in a suburban area - or smaller town

(2) extend some routes to enable busses to pollute more and damage roadways - like the Second Avenue line. It was extended over Whitehall Road to St. Peter's Hospital. The noisy vehicles whiz by with a single passenger (most of the time they're empty) and badly damaged a portion of Hackett Boulevard, where a cement slab had to be put down to accomodate them. (The buses draw traffic from the #9 Whitehall Road bus, and I'll betcha the CDTA is going to announce #9 is shutting down because "fares are down" because about ten people a day hop aboard the Second Ave. line, because they travel about a minute in front of #9)

A more LOGICAL thing to do: KEEP #9 because it's the only way one might travel from Whitehall Road to near Central Avenue (get off at Partridge, Quail or Lake) without having to pay more $$$ for another bus, since the transfer system was abolished. And why not EXTEND #9 at the Morton Avenue area to run all the way down Morton and over South Pearl instead of crossing Eagle?

NOW I "get it" ::: CDTA just doesn't get it.

Let's hope they don't raise bus fare again.

You "thank-you" folks would be smarter to run out and hug and thank the guys who take your garbage out on trash day.


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