Want to be taken seriously? Take yourself seriously, first.
June 13, 2010 By: almostgotit Category: UncategorizedGood news! I was so organized this morning that I was nine minutes early to my bus stop, which should have been ample time to catch my semi-hourly bus in time to get to work.
Bad news! Unfortunately, as early as I was, my bus was exactly one minute earlier, and I saw it whizz by as I waited to cross the last street to get to my stop.
It may have been the earlier bus running 20 minutes late, but how was I to know? And who has 40 minutes to wait at a bus stop every morning simply to be SURE to catch a semi-hourly bus, to account for that potential range of earliness/lateness? Where was the sign with the number I should call to find out whether the bus was on time, even?
I have lived in a lot of cities and taken a lot of public transportation: busses, subways, trolleys, commuter trains. That’s why I continue to find the Knoxville public transportation system so frustrating.
First, the ridership demographic is very telling. When I’ve taken the bus to or from work, I’ve seen very few business-types on the bus with me. Instead, the bus seems mostly to be an extension of the local homeless shelter along with small clusters of non-English speaking newcomers in clean but threadbare clothes, often toting tiny children behind them.
Why don’t other people take the bus? Perhaps because most of us need more control over our daily schedules and can’t risk being 40 minutes late for a dental appointment, or a meeting, or even a job.
My suggestion to the Knox Area Transit system, which currently struggles for viability because it’s struggling for riders: KAT, in order to be taken seriously, you must take yourself (and your schedule) seriously, first.
June 13th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Mass transit in many places is a joke. Here, for instance. Once I went grocery shopping and passed some people waiting for a bus at the local stop. On my way home, with the groceries, some 40 minutes later, THE SAME PEOPLE were still waiting at THE SAME STOP. And that’s why the only people who use public transportation out here are people who don’t really need to be anywhere in any particular amount of time.
June 13th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
When I lived in Denver I relied on city buses to get to work (the work that supported me so I could afford to dance). I lost my first job (read: was fired) because the buses were unreliable and I was late to work. All. The. Time. After that I got a job that was walking distance from my apartment.
I have a family at the ballet school who live downtown and take the KAT to their ballet classes. Always, they are either early, early for class, or blow in seconds before class starts. Very nice folks, they are, who try to convince me that the multi-car family will be a thing of the past in the near future. Er, on what planet?
The other thing I routinely note about our public transit here is that the buses appear to be mainly empty…. Big, big, empty, buses paid for by our tax dollars. Hmmmmm…. I will say that in Denver—during rush hour, anyway—the buses were packed; my boyfriend at the time played in the Denver Symphony and was denied boarding on a bus to get to a rehearsal because his viola case was too large!!!
BTW: We should go to lunch very soon; we won’t take the bus—I will come and get you if you wish—and nobody else EXCEPT the new girl is invited, K?
July 26th, 2010 at 2:38 am
I’ve been driving a bus for Metro in Seattle for quite some time, and we take it pretty seriously there. I was written up for being 45 seconds early last year, and I won’t let it happen again. You should consider moving to Seattle!