It sure has been nice

It sure has been pleasant not taking public transportation for the last few months. My company recently relocated to the South End of the Valley and the UTA's ability to do anything but cross-town or early morning downtown made it a necessity to drive myself. Considering that I'd be waiting for the bus longer than it would take for me to drive in I can't really complain.

But, now I get to take the bus tomorrow. I would take TRAX but I'm limiting myself to using some UTA bus tokens made useless by their new policy to not accept them at TRAX stations. So, I'd also like to thank the thank-less losers who forced UTA's hand in making this policy decision.

I was going to go back to the bus...

I was almost ready to have my company pay for my bus pass again, but on second thought, I'm not going to do that. It still takes longer to take the bus, I have to sit near people that should have called in sick, I have to wait in the rain and cold to catch the bus, and I won't ever be late getting to my car. It's always waiting for me like a kind friend. Anyway, not busing it. Ever.

My last day waiting for the bus?

Yeah, maybe. I got to the bus stop when the bus has been coming over the past 2-3 months and proceeded to wait for about 10 minutes. When my commute driving in is only 30 minutes, it's a considerable amount of time to wait for a really slow/late bus driver. I probably get annoyed to easily but I decided after my wait that I needed to get to work and I couldn't handle the bus this morning. Of course, while I was driving away I saw the bus coming around the corner. Oh well. I still shaved 15 minutes off the bus commute even with the wait.

Gahh!!

I hated my bus ride this morning,
The lady had no clue with the driving,
I arrived at work early,
No thanks to the girly,
May gas prices start downward going.

Eating on the bus

So, all the buses and TRAX have a sign saying food is prohibited on the bus. I don't think I've ever seen this rule enforced. Yesterday a guy gets on with a soda and a Subway sandwich bag. He proceeds to eat his cookie and drink from his soda. Yeah, give the guy a break. One of the biggest problems is we're too lenient on this type of infraction. Someone spills, the seat/floor get sticky and the bus becomes a little less nice. If the rule means nothing get rid of it. If not, I expect people to bring boom boxes and start smoking on the bus as well. I can find this type of rule breaking much easier on TRAX, but on a bus where the bus driver is the gatekeeper and can sometimes see what is being brought on the bus it's just hard for me to understand.

So I drove in today

Yeah, I just couldn't get my body out of bed in time to take the bus. I thought that I could lay down for a few minutes more but it turned into an hour. Anyway, I left my house at 8:23 and arrived at work at 8:53. I guess that's about 1/2 hour. At that time of the day the roads are pretty open so it turned out to be a pretty good commute. I listened to my iPod so I enjoyed my time in the car too. Anyway, I'll have to see how the commute home is.

One of the biggest shortcomings of Public Transit

It's public. I sat near the back of the bus today and a couple of yackers (people who talk the entire ride) were bugging. I finally put on my headphones and cranked the classical music to help me concentrate on my reading. Anyway, I guess if the bus is a giant water cooler then just talk. I find it's a great time to read or catch up on something. All I can say is that I probably need a new book if I'm that distracted.