Public transportation. Uh the word alone just creeps me out. Do you or do you not just imagine dirty human beings on a bus? I don't know if that's wrong or mean of me to say, but I'm telling the truth. So ya I was not thrilled to do this assignment.
Over the summer I lived in NYC and rode the subway everywhere, but the subway is how everyone gets around. Once in a while I would see a scary homeless man humming a tune much too loud to himself, which made everyone suspicious he was drunk or you'd see I plump black lady in cheetah spandex with attitude on her face like she was gonna kick your butt. I'd also play a game where I tried to guess which girl on the subway was a designer. They don't wear anything trendy and usually black head to toe, but they have a distinct style and usually eccentric jewelry that you can tell they wear everyday, like a necklace with a feather. A group of homeless men would bring a boom box (so 90's right?) and break dance for tips. I knew I became a New Yorker halfway through the summer when I had seen it so many times before I wasn't even tempted to look up, especially because I was sick of being harassed for cash.
Anyways, back to now. Ya I tried diligently to ride the bus in Provo, but the transportation gods were not helping me out. So the UTA site sucks, but I figured it out and saw that the easiest route for me to take had a stop 5 blocks away. Except the next time it came was either 5 minutes or 30 minutes... really, I am way to impatient and I didn't want to look stupid waiting for a bus, so I thought ya I can make it. Well, I sped walked as fast as I could and thought yes I'm totally gonna make it I was only 25 feet away.... until I saw the bus drive by. I thought it was coming from the east, but really it was coming from the south, so I was on the wrong side of the street. Woot woot. I watched it go by and it reminded me of 8th grade when I took the bus to school and I would be so scared if I missed it cause my mom would get mad. At least for me it was only Saturday, so I made a plan for Monday to try it again.
Monday I tried. I walked halfway to the same bus stop, until I realized I was a dime short and didn't have enough money to ride the bus. So I turned around as a failure.
Moral of the story: I consider myself a New Yorker, but I can't even figure out public transportation in a city that's 100x smaller. Maybe it's just that this city is too small for me. I don't know, but I'm ready for summer and normal public transportation, if you can ever consider anything in NYC normal.
I agree that Provo's public transportation is way confusing...like how you have to have exact change for the bus...
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that since public transportation is less common here it's harder to use than a place like NYC where you'd expect it to be a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the problem is in that UTA is only taking care of like 1% of the population, so they can really suck at what they do and no one will care. If Subway instructions were that hard to find NYC would go crazy. (And I'm going to NYC next week, so let me know if you have any suggestions on things I should go/do/see/eat).
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends where you're from, but in many places the only option is to take public transportation. Which means a whole variety of cool people are present, not just dirty ones. :) I think the variety of all kinds of people makes it an interesting experience and it's fun to people watch!
ReplyDelete