slowgorichmond

on bus, on bike, on foot

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shady bower stop / meadow and grove

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riding elsewhere: los angeles

I lived in Los Angeles for a good chunk of my twenties. During my last few years there, I was a die-hard bus rider. 

Yeah, the palm trees make it seem all glamorous and such, but let me assure you that's not an outsized range rover. The buses are just as crowded and sticky as any other public system.

Come to think of it, Los Angeles is probably one of the cities in the world that is most hostile to public transpo. Gridlock, people. I used to commute from the west side to south central-ish a few times a week, and it took me two hours each way. I used to listen to a lot of Girl Talk and dream about being a laptop DJ. (Only kind of not true.) 

The Los Angeles MTA does have some things going for it, though. They've got the TAP pass, for starters. You can do monthly or weekly fares on this sucker - or get discounts through your school or work. In other words, you're riding the bus for hell of cheap.

The bus riding community in Los Angeles is also really politicized. L.A. has the Bus Riders Union, whose slogan is "mass transportation is a human right!" I love that. These people are social justice bosses. They sued the LA MTA in 1994 for creating a  separate and unequal bus system for people of color, working class peeps, and women (57% of LA bus riders were LADIES at the time - solidarity). They said the LA MTA violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Boss.

Bonus round: Los Angeles is a movie town, so I guess they were inevitably going to make a movie about their public transit system. 

Why not, right? I never saw Sandy Bullock on my bus line, but I did see David Hasselhoff walking down a median toward Wilshire Blvd. once. That counts for something.

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The Saddest Bus Stop Ever. This guy needs a bench.

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Yes, I was slagging off GRTC earlier, but as a small concession, I should say that full-time VCU students are eligible for one of these pretty great bus passes. If it were 1999-2003, it'd be business time.

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the straw and the camel back

I've been thinking about doing a public transit bus for a couple of months now. Since the beginning of June, at least. My S.O. has been working out of town and with him went the clunker we use for groceries or carpooling. (I miss you Volvo station wagon, I miss you like a hand or a foot!)

This means my public transportation use has been way, way up. Like, through the roof on a daily basis. I get up in the morning and walk to the bus stop. Then I wait for the bus. Then I ride the bus. I walk some. I work. Then I walk back to the bus stop and I wait for the bus again. Then I ride the bus home. Wash/rinse/repeat.

I usually spend a couple of hours each day caught up in this loop. (Have probably listed to every single podcast of This American Life ever recorded by now.) I get a lot of time to think. About the debt ceiling and mortality and my favorite Lost episode, sure. But here is another thing I've been thinking about:

The GRTC is pretty terrible.

"Really? Terrible?" you ask, raising your eyebrows skeptically. "Kinda harsh. How about, you know, inconvenient? Or maybe just slow?"

No, friends. It's terrible.

The confusing maps, the difficult-to-read schedules, the unkempt stops, the lack of bus shelters, the perpetual lateness, the dearth of benches in poorer neighborhoods.

And then there's the fares. Oh, the fares! One dollar and fifty cents for the average rider. EACH WAY.

For those of you not used to taking the bus, that might not seem like a lot. But to a commuter - or for anyone who must rely on the bus as their primary means of transportation - it's big money.

I mean, come on. No incentives for frequent riders? No discounts for a monthly bus pas? Three dollars a day to commute to my job? And then another three dollars if I need to go to the grocery store after work? For anyone making right around minimum wage or working contract or freelance or whatever, this kind of thing adds up.

And I don't know, to me that makes it all kind of terrible. (She says, getting out her soapbox.) It's terrible because the people who take the bus are usually the people who can least afford it. It's terrible because you're paying premium prices for a service that actually kind of blows. (Shakes fist in air.)

Anyway. I'm not going to just chronicle my woe here. (Though I admit I do need an outlet for a summer's worth of rage.) I'll also use this space to explore transportation and social justice, transpo activism in Richmond, and of course, other means of getting around this city - not just the bus, but also bikes and pedestrian issues and that kind of thing. Got to keep it posi, right? Right. A public transportation blog! It sounds like fun, people. Let's do this.