Riding the bus with a twist
Internet malfunction last night, sorry folks!
When I moved to San Antonio, as I mentioned, I participated in a volunteer year with the presbyterian Church. The name of the program was called the Young Adult Volunteers and they, initially, placed me with an after school program on the south end of San Antonio. Since none of the participants, including me, had cars so we relied on public transit. Our site coordinator who was from the mennonite church of San Antonio took a day and helped us get familiar with the system. I remember everyone saying things like, ‘SA doesn’t have the best public transportation’ and to this day I hear the same sentiment. I don't TOTALLY agree. Don’t misunderstand me, there is plenty of room for improvement in our public transit system and I like to believe there is some pretty nice money going into making those improvements. Also, I think the reason most people criticize our transit system is because they have not tried to use it themselves. And, just like any mode of transportations other then a car, it requires some extra time and planning. Trust me, I get it, there are days I could NOT get everything on my ‘to do list’ finished if i didn't borrow someone’s car to drive around the city. However, this doesn’t mean it is not a valuable option for families or individuals to commute.
Now, riding the bus with a bike. This makes riding the bus even QUICKER because normally it means you don't have to transfer buses to get to your destination. After my volunteer year, I was still working with an after school program on the west side of downtown along with a coffee shop many of you know called, ‘Sip.’ After riding my bike in the wee hours of the morning from Hildebrand and Fredericksburg and opening the coffee shop, sometimes I had no desire to ride my bike to my next job. So, I use the bus.
Instead of reinventing the wheel and taking my own pictures of my adventures on a bus, Im going to use this very useful thing i have found called, the INTERNET! I never knew how helpful it could be, really. Again, if you know me outside of this blog you know my capacity for technology has been a LONG and SLOW road, while it may seem advanced since I'm writing a blog, is not. Anyway... Here is an amazing video put out by via. After this, I have a few pro tips for riding the bus.
So, now that you know how easy getting your bike on the bus can be. How to find your route? Again, this is where our iPhones and androids are super helpful even on the road.
http://www.viainfo.net/BusService/RiderTool.aspx
First pro tip: Ill put in my starting and ending address into the website. Normally, the easiest way to get to my destination is skip the first or second bus. Say for instance, I want to go to North Star Mall from the Pearl Brewery. The website tells me to take the #14 bus, south, downtown to Navarro&Martin in order to take the #5 bus up McCullough up to North Star. To Make my life easier, I will either ride my bike to the bus stop downtown to Navarro&Martin or ride directly west to McCullough (which is super close) to find the first bus stop traveling north towards North Star. Boom. You get a quick ride and the Luxury missing those crazy hills up McCullough on the bus.
Pro tip two: Again, use technology. You can now TEXT THE BUS! Say for instance you get to that bus stop on Mccullough and you want to know how long you have until the next bus arrives, you can text the bus stop number (the 5 digit number under the bus number) not the bus number to: 52020. The bus will text you back with upcoming schedules for all the buses coming to your bus stop.
Pro tip three: Bring correct change for the bus. The bus will not give you change if you decide to give it two dollars and you only owe them 1.30. Regular bus is $1.30 and with a transfer is $1.45. This is subject to change but check it out before you go:)
http://www.viainfo.net/Fares/FaresMain.aspx
Until tomorrow! Deal. Out.
