Going Transit

My return to Richmond means a return to more consistent blogging. Apologies to my readers for not posting a lot over the summer. But now we're all back, so it's all good.

For my week of vacation between work and school, I went to Las Vegas. Vegas is home to casinos, ridiculous energy consumption, and some of the strangest people on the planet. But the trip opened my eyes to something. Allow me to explain. In Vegas, there is a bus called the Deuce that runs up and down the strip. This works like any other bus - if you want to get off at the next stop, you push the button, and the driver will stop.

On one particular bus ride, there was either someone who really did not understand the system, or just wanted to make the driver angry. If it was the latter, it worked. Someone pushed the button, and the driver stopped the bus. When no one moved, he gets his speaker out and says "Does ANYONE need to get off the bus???" in a very frustrated tone. No one moves, so he closes the door and pulls away. As soon as he moves again, someone hits the button. He makes the next stop, and guess what? No one gets off the bus. Now he is really mad, and said the following:

"Let me explain how this works to you people. When you hit those red buttons, it makes me think that someone needs to get off the bus! And I've got to make the stop. SO, AGAIN, does ANYONE need to get off the bus?!?!?"

While amused, I realized this could be a serious problem. We've all heard about postal workers, doing the same thing over and over again and not getting appreciated until they "go postal" - go crazy basically. But the thing is if a postal worker goes crazy, the number of people hurt will likely be minimal. Little Jimmy might not get that birthday card from Aunt Louise with $11 in it on time, but for the most part people will be safe.

But with bus drivers, it's different. Like postal workers, they do the same thing over and over again, often unappreciated. But if a driver were to "go transit," he's got a bus full of people he's takin down with him. We can't have this be happening. So c'mon now people, thank your bus drivers, and don't hit the button unless you need to get off the bus.

More on Vegas later. Glad to be back.