Living Between the Minutes [Rant]

Van Der Litreb · Post by **Van Der Litreb** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 5:48 am

I don't really pay much attention to the time of day, and basically live by the motto "I'll get there when I get there". One thing I'm very punctual about, though, is catching my train to school. I go to school in a city a ways north of here, a good 1½ hours by train. Given the bus rides at both ends, plus the waiting-around-time, the trip forth and back is about 4½ hours. My train only leaves once an hour, so I try very hard to be punctual. And I'm usually succesful at this.

Fat good it all does, when your bus is friggin' _early_!

Let me run you through my morning, to show you how a handful of minutes can turn a friendly, patient pacifist into a frothing berserk.

5:00 am. My telephone alerts me that it's time to wake up. I had already woken up, so I spend a few minutes stretching and getting used to the light.
5:07 am. I get out of bed and go take a shower.
5:26 am. I come back from my shower, to get dressed, have breakfast, go online, pack my bag, pack a lunch. Everything at pretty much the same time. We all know how this works.
5:51 am. I leave my house to take the bus, which is supposed to leave at 5:54. The bus stop is about 100 meters away, so it takes less than a minute to get there. Given the structure of the street, I am usually able to see if the bus is anywhere near my stop, requiring me to actually run for it. As I leave the house, I look to my right, to see that the bus is nowhere near me yet. As I turn left, towards the bus stop, I see that my bus has not only passed the stop, but is well on the way of leaving the next one. I ponder for a bit, hoping that it wasn't in fact my bus, and go to my bus stop anyway.
5:56 am. Having waited for about 4 minutes, I finally come to terms with the fact that it was indeed my bus. I decide to go to the next bus stop, to see if any of the busses there would be able to get me to my train in time.
5:59 am. I arrive a the next stop, and find out that one of the busses may, in fact, _just_ make it in time for me to catch my train, which leaves at 6:14.
6:03 am. My new bus arrives and leaves precisely on schedule. Given this new bus' route, I have estimated the trip to take 7 minutes.
6:10 am. I arrive downtown. I speedwalk towards the train station, taking a shortcut going directly to my train, rather than through the station itself.
6:11 am. I get to the train platform. I find out that whereas all other trains during the day leave at fourteen minutes past the hour, the 6 o'clock train leaves at ten past.
6:12 am. I let out a primordial scream.
6:15 am. I take a bus home again.

Thorn · Post by **Thorn** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 6:17 am

Thank you, Veed, for reminding me why I'm grateful I no longer have to rely on public transportation.

And sorry to hear you had such a crummy morning. Suckage, man.

Cazmonster · Post by **Cazmonster** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 6:52 am

Cazmonster wuffles Veed.

Damn dude, that is truly rotten luck. Here's hoping the busses run on schedule from here on out.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 7:33 am

I posted my displeasure for public transport on <pimp>http://forums.dv8.nl</pimp>, and I do want to say that after having done the public transport thing for years, the driving to work in hellish traffic thing for a couple of years, too, and being back to the public transport since recently, there are pros and cons for the both of them.

Pros about public transport:
- You can read.
- You don't have to stand still in traffic jams.

Cons about public transport:
- You have to live by someone else's time-table.
- You get dropped off in the "general area" of something.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 11:04 am

Dennis wrote:Pros about public transport:
- You don't have to stand still in traffic jams.

Cons about public transport:
- You do have to stand still in traffic jams, except it's on your aching feet on the bus because every seat's full already, not sitting in a comfy car seat with air-conditioning and a stereo.

Not that I'm bitter.

MooCow · Post by **MooCow** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 11:24 am

Just a note of Public Transportation (Mainly addressed to US readers)....

It is an absolute neccesity for major cities. In the US we are rapidly approaching a crisis in our Infrastructure. Cities like Chicago are reaching the limit of their highway/tollway systems. Cities like Los Angeles have already surpassed the limit. Increasing these capacities is costing this country billions of dollars in tax money. Los Angeles no longer has enough empty land to expand the highway system to meet 30 year estimates, and will have to go to double decker highways (which are very expensive and difficult to design, especially in an earthquake zone).

The solution to these problems is Public Transportation. Unfortuantly, we are not spending enough money on PT research such as high speed monorails, automated bus systems, etc. The problem is something of a catch 22. People won't ride Public Transportation until it is more advanced, efficient, reliable, etc. On the flip side, politicians won't spend any money to reseach, upgrade, and expand Public Transportation until people demonstrate a willingness to use it.

The US can not continue on the road it is currently on (pun intended). If we do not increase our use of Public Transportation we will see more and more infrastructure failures in the coming years. Those of you of voting age, please support politicians who support Public Transportation.

This has been your regularly scheduled dooms day prediction. Thank you for your attention.

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 1:27 pm

Hence the reason I always try to take jobs in areas that are not heavily commuted.

Eva · Post by **Eva** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 3:22 pm

Like the Chicagoland area?

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 3:30 pm

whenever we have to go downtown (almost always for fun, not work), I try to encourage Daki that we use public transportation. and my reasons are:

-I LOVE riding on the train (only one train in Texas and that's a cross-country traveling train, not local stops)
-I /hate/ having to ride in a car down those narrow fucking streets downtown. cabbies are a different story, they drive downtown all the time and are used to behaving as if in a demilitarized zone.
-did I mention that I love riding on the train??

-we don't have to fight traffic getting downtown (which can take up to 2hrs depending on the time we leave) or fight it getting back (which can take up to 3hrs depending on the time we leave).

I still haven't been on the L yet.

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 3:45 pm

Actually, commutting anywhere near downtown Chicago is a nightmare but there are some areas in the Southwester and Northwestern suburbs where traffic is very light and commute is not hard at all.

Big Jim · Post by **Big Jim** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:02 pm

Living in the city (Chicago) and working downtown, the L is great. Trains come every 8 minutes (more often during the rush), they're close to my apartment and the office, and there's no waiting in traffic. That said, when I go elsewhere in the city, I drive.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 5:02 pm

Not for work as I was too far out, but for fun, I'd take the Metro into DC all the time. Here, again too far out for much PT, but they're started to move buses further out from the perimeter, more park and ride type things, but still good.

Cash · Post by **Cash** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 9:21 pm

2 and a half to 3 hours by bus when I was going to college on the other side of the valley. 18.6 miles away. Take public transit? Not if I can help it. If our PT system was improved, I'd support it. Everything here is so spread out.

Ikarus7 · Post by **Ikarus7** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 10:56 pm

I hapilly 300 meter from my college, but 2 year ago I was at another college, and I had to take the bus each 2 day for an hour.

Problem is, buses around here have a tendencies to atract old people without anything else to do, they hop on the bus and chit chat with the driver and/or other old folks for hours.

The first couple of days weren't so bad, but afetr a week you get tired of hearing the same rant about weather and back ache from the ame groupe of person everytime you take the bus.

It was also frustrating to see all the seat taking during busy hour by people who are just taking the bus because they have nothing else to do, I wouldn't mind giving my seat to elder people if they needed it, but having to stand up for an hour because they think the bus is a kind a social club kind of irrate me.

Anyway, I'm now glad to live near my college, no need to take the bus anymore. I just hate public transport.

Liniah · Post by **Liniah** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 11:21 pm

Ok, I'm not sure what train you're taking in chicago that comes every 8 minutes, but you'll have to let me know where it is!

But, really, I'm a huge fan of public transport. (and I was even before my car has been broken for 3 months and counting, thankyouverymuch.

)

Ok, the trains smell nasty and so do the busses. I have found some gross things on there. They all need to be redone. However, it's still soooo much better than driving. You don't have to find parking, pay for parking, find where the fuck you're supposed to drive to, sit in traffic, or drive after drinking! The L (although slimy) is so nice. I wish it went out farther, though. Going to metra from where I live now (and paying for metra since I have a student pass for the L) is inconvenient. Anyway, I agree with Moo.

Reika · Post by **Reika** » Thu Feb 13, 2003 12:31 am

I miss decent public transportation, in the area I'm now, there's only one busline, which is truly shitty. The drivers suck, the buses break down frequently and their stops are located in hugely inconvient areas. I was hugely spoiled by Hoboken, there were alot of different methods of getting around and the buses didn't suck as badly.

So if there was decent public transportation in my area, I'd happily support it.

Jeff Hauze · Post by **Jeff Hauze** » Thu Feb 13, 2003 4:56 am

Public transportation? You mean that four lane divided road? I think they call it a highway. Oh...you mean when the neighbor's pickup truck breaks down and you have to drive them into town to get a new mule for their wagon from the general store.

All jokes aside, can't say shit about public transportation. Other than school buses and buslines that go to Atlantic City, there's nothing of the sort in my area. And generally, I try to avoid it anyway. All those brightly colored maps confuse a simple country bumpkin like myself.