Bus woes

Last Friday was not a good day for the bus.

I planned to see a movie (yes of course Batman) after work with a friend. I drove to work since I didn't want to take the train home late at night. But impressively, my friend took the train, knowing he'd be taking it back late at night after the movies. He's taken the train to work before but this time he was boasting of his "zero carbon emissions" since he biked instead of driving to the Red Line station near his house. Yet when he asked how to get to my office, which is near the Grove where we'd be seeing the movie, this is what I ran up against (recreated as best I remember):

"Is there a train station near your office?"

"No, it's three miles away. The easiest way is to take the bus."

"No way."

"No it's not bad, really. I take the bus. You can get on the 16 downtown. It'll drop you off right in front of my office or the Grove."

I wasn't able to sway him so the discussion ended with me agreeing to pick him up from the Red Line station three miles from my office and then drive us three miles back to the movie theater. For anyone counting, yes that's a total of six miles that I hadn't planned on driving.

"These are your six miles," I told him. He was a good sport and accepted them.

So he didn't have a zero carbon footprint day but he could have if riding the bus was more accepted.

Which brings me to problem #2. As I was driving to pick up my friend, blocks away my coworker was stuck waiting 30 minutes for her bus to come. She arrived five minutes early but the 6:12 p.m. bus just didn't come. And this was a busy bus stop on a major street during a peak commuting time. She said she could have been home in 20 minutes, so she was making a sacrifice by taking the bus since she after her bus finally arrived she still needed to transfer to another one. Since she doesn't live too far away from work she's not saving money by taking the bus, she's doing it for the environment. But I'm sure stuff like this will make her think twice next Friday morning when she's thinking of taking the bus again.

So, if I had someone from the MTA in front of me, this is what I'd say. You need a new marketing campaign to attract professionals to want to get out of their cars and take the bus. You need a better website. Mta.net is a mess, especially for first-time visitors. It's enough to put you back in your car. And finally (and perhaps firstly), you need to make a bigger commitment to having your buses run on time. I know, you can't add more buses overnight but there must be something you can do now (more supervisors and oversight?). Taking the bus won't become more popular if it takes twice as long to get home.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on taking the train and bus to work tomorrow. Pray for me!