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| http://www.metro-magazine.com/news/story/2009/08/iowa-unveils-first-hybrid-bus.aspx |
So, I suppose you were wondering what happened to the public transportation thingy? Oh c'mon, have a li'l patience, willyaalready? Here it is!!
So whaddya say we move right along to the bus system. Now, I've been riding the MTA/DART since I was a wee guy...or at least as wee as 15 yr. old teens get, that is...and there's quite a bit that I've had to complain about, of this you can be certain. One of things that always seems to irritate me the most is that we can always afford hybrid 3 busses with all the bells and whistles, but we can't ever seem to afford to update to the quality service that we should have with said new busses.
I moved away a few times to the wonderful little capital city of Madison, WI on a few occassions...and the thing I always noticed was how phenomenal and way ahead of us the bus system was there. Granted, one of the biggest colleges in the midwest is located in the city, UW. With over 10,000 students there at any one given time; most without cars; they had best have a great bus system, no question. There's oh so much we could learn about the bus system from these people, however, and if we were to ever implement any of it, we might just boast the same numbers in our ridership as well.
Let's take a look at all the glaringly noticeable differences in the two systems (remember, this was the last time I was there, in 2009...I'm sure they've already improved it massively by now).
DES MOINES: Dart Central, a brand new station in the lower downtown area. Here, you can buy your bus passes, complain a lot, and pick up schedules. As soon as you walk outside the building, you may just notice a security officer running towards you, because you chose to take the quickest route to the bus you want, because it looks like it might be on it's way out of the station. After the security officer (or the bus driver, or the supervisor, or anybody with any kind of a helpful nature) diverts you to a central strip of walk that you have to go clear out of your way to get to, because you had to catch the bus that's directly parallel to the one you got off of, you have to go half way west, then back to the east side of the station again, because you can't walk anyplace off of that walk, unless you go back inside. When you just about get there, the bus begins to pull off, because it's time he gets going. You wave frantically at the driver to get him to hold up for you, but he totally ignores you and drives straight ahead in order to get away from you. You see, once a bus begins to pull away, it doesn't matter if you lay in front of it, he'll wait til you get up and move away, then he'll leave you again, because once they pull away from the ramp, it's too late, and you have to wait for the next one. Also, when the busses get here, don't always expect to get right on it, because this is now where the bus drivers take their breaks. If you run out in the cold to catch him from leaving you, you end up waiting, because actually, this is his break time, and he just got off...and now you have to stand out in the cold til he gets back - in five minutes, or right up to the time he has to leave, you never know. Since you're now starting to get cold, you might turn to go back inside, and then the driver comes back, pulls two inches away from the curb, and now you're stuck waiting for the next one.
MADISON: They have a central station as well. The only time the busses go there is if the drivers are coming on or getting off. The routes all come downtown, just like in Des Moines, but they go all the way around the square in Madison, making sure that you don't have much of a chance to miss it. If you slap the bus, they'll stop for you.
DES MOINES: Bus passes are $48 for a month. If you buy one on June 1, then you lose it June 2nd, and you were smart enough to know that if you wrote down all the numbers that identify it, they can stop whoever found the pass from using it, then when they've done this, they'll issue you another. Of course, this could be a week or so later, forcing you to buy a weekly one to tide you over at $16. If you're not much into this course of action, then you could be forced to buy another $48 bus pass, now good for only 29 days instead of the original 30 or 31 days.
MADISON: They sell you a 31 day bus pass. There, they have a printer on each bus. You can keep the pass in your wallet for the whole year if you want, and when you decide to pull it out, you stick it in the printer, then it prints the date that you first used the pass on it, then it's good for exactly 31 days after this. If you lose your pass, the next one is full price of course, but it's still good for 31 days from when you use it the first time.
DES MOINES: The fare is $1.75. When you get on, you get a free paper transfer which allows you to ride the bus again...as long as you're getting on a different route altogether, or are going in the original direction of travel on the same route. If you go to the local grocery store, then take a bus back to your home; because it's going the opposite direction, you have to pay another $1.75.
MADISON: The fare *was* $2.00. When you get on, you can ask for a transfer, which is a printed card that you can use for 2 hours to go anywhere, any direction.
DES MOINES: Your choices for passes are monthy and weekly.
MADISON: You can buy the yearly passes, monthly passes, weekly passes and daily all-day passes.
DES MOINES: Got GPS a couple years ago.
MADISON: Has had verbal GPS for at least 8 years.
DES MOINES: Takes every holiday off, whether you have to work on the holiday or not. A third of the routes only run at peak times, morning and afternoon. Another third stops running at around 6 p.m. The major and busiest routes, approximately 4 of them, run til 10:45 p.m. On Sunday, all the busses only run til 6 p.m. On the weekend they only run about once an hour, with the more busy routes running every half hour, approximately 3 of them.
MADISON: Every route, with the exception of maybe 2 or 3 of them, run from 6 a.m. to midnight. They run every day, even holidays. They don't slow down much for the weekend, although they finally slow to once an hour on the holidays. They hit just about every street anywhere in the city, especially where all their business is. They have four transfer points with each one having a bus that runs to a corresponding one elsewhere in the city (i.e., the north one has 3 busses that only run to other transfer points). Their main and busiest routes change to every 15 minutes during peak times, and every single bus in Madison is full...to standing up even.
This is probably the thing I hate the most though. If they start a new route, they run it for a season (usually til the next change), then cut it if it doesn't work out. Now come on guys. You gotta give people a while to realize the damn thing is running by their house, don't you???
No, no, I'm sorry...the thing I hate the MOST is the fact that every business in Des Moines has, at one time or another, moved way out West, where just about every business has gone. Dart runs people that way maybe 2 times a day...in the morning and at night. If you want a decent job, this is where the work is. You can't get there, but that's where they are. Nice.
OK. Enough bitching for the day. Enjoy your lunch. :D
