I take the city bus to school every day. I looked into getting a parking pass for the sake of convenience, but the only parking pass that would be worthwhile for me has a long waiting list and an annual fee of nearly $400. They also over-sell these passes, so you are not guaranteed of finding a parking spot. All students at WSU have to pay a mandatory $15 "transit fee" each semester. The transit fee is used to subsidize the city bus system and allows all WSU students to use their student ID as a bus pass. All in all, it is a pretty good deal.
There are pros and cons to riding the bus.
On the plus side, it is cheap. The transit fee is mandatory for all students whether they use the bus or not, so I may as well use it since I have to pay for it anyway. I also don't have to deal with the hassle of finding a parking spot on campus or pay for gas.
On the negative side, the bus schedule can be best described as random. When I used public transportation in places like San Francisco, Honolulu, and Japan, I was able to show up about five or ten minutes before the bus/train arrived and rarely had a long wait. In Pullman, the schedule is "on average, every 12 to 15 minutes." This usually works out okay, but sometimes I have to wait about 30 minutes for a bus. Because of this, I have to factor in a rather large chunk of time to ensure that I make it to class on time. This gets a lot worse when it snows.
Another bad thing is that the bus is crowded. The buses are usually pretty empty at my bus stops, so I usually don't have any difficulty finding a seat. However, when we get to the later stops, we pick up lots more people and the bus gets awfully crowded. The bus drivers are constantly telling people to crowd in tighter and make room for a few more. I think some of the bus drivers suffer from delusions of grandeur and secretly fantasize that they are piloting the last helicopter of the U.S. evacuation during the Fall of Saigon.
In my opinion, the worst part is some of the other people riding the bus. Most people have the sense to practice good hygiene. This doesn't apply to all college students. There are some kids that have not learned that it is a good idea to shower nearly every day. Frequently, these people also have not learned that they should occasionally wash their clothes. They also still have to learn that the use of cologne or perfume, no matter how much you use, doesn't entirely compensate for lack of showers and lack of clean clothing. Others need to learn to blow their nose before they go to school and they need to learn to cough and sneeze into their sleeves instead of on their fellow bus passengers.
I have a two-pronged strategy to combat this problem. First, I glare at everyone that smells like they haven't showered in a week. This dissuades most of them. The other thing that I do is claim two seats that are kind of a tight squeeze for two people. I'm a pretty fat guy (I prefer the term Nutritionally Enhanced) and this limits the number of people that can sit next to me. Eventually, the seat is usually taken by one of several petite Asian girls that attend school. They tend to practice above-average hygiene, so I have no problem with them sitting next to me.
There is a guy that I privately refer to as "The Rock." I do not think of him as "The Rock" in the sense of "He Rocks" nor do I refer to him as "The Rock" because he reminds me of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I had a class with this guy about a year and a half ago and became convinced that the space between his ears is filled with gravel, or possibly a solid mass of stone. That is why I refer to him as "The Rock."
He has a freakish ability to anticipate my bus schedule. I can leave for school two hours early to finish up some school work, and he will get on the bus a few stops after I get on. I can be running 30 minutes late and he will get on the bus. I can be right on time and he will get on the bus. It's really kind of spooky. I bet he is on the same bus as me at least five times a week. Even worse, he is not deterred by my glares and he will squeeze in next to me because he remembers me from the class that we took together a year and a half ago. He will then rattle on incessantly until we get to our destination, no matter how studiously I look out the window or pretend to talk on my cell phone.
He is a chemistry student. I guess that means he is studying to become a scientist of sorts. He is not very bright and I am surprised that he made it this far. I am sure that it would take you an hour to teach him to boil water or unlock a door. I have compassion for people that cannot grasp concepts or easily learn things. Still, I feel pretty strongly that some people should not be scientists or engineers. The processes of designing and developing procedures for maintaining and operating things like airplanes, nuclear power plants, and bridges are complex. These processes are not well suited to a trial-and-error method. I fear that "The Rock" will be doomed to a life of a chemical technician performing the same analytical procedures over and over again until he retires.
The reason that I bring him up is that he happened to sit next to me on the way to school today. He went on and on about how much trouble he was having in one of his classes. That was my first bus ride of the day. When I came home after my first class, I left school about 30 minutes late and the bus was nearly empty for my second ride of the day. "The Rock" got on at the next stop and ignored about forty empty seats to squeeze in next to me and entertain me with his feelings about the incredible coincidence that we were on the same bus twice in the same day. I have to take a bus back to school in a little while. Based on my earlier experiences today, I estimate that there is about a 90% chance I will be listening to "The Rock" commenting on the odds against us being on the same bus three times in the same day. Sigh. I guess that is how life rolls sometimes. At least he doesn't stink.
There are pros and cons to riding the bus.
On the plus side, it is cheap. The transit fee is mandatory for all students whether they use the bus or not, so I may as well use it since I have to pay for it anyway. I also don't have to deal with the hassle of finding a parking spot on campus or pay for gas.
On the negative side, the bus schedule can be best described as random. When I used public transportation in places like San Francisco, Honolulu, and Japan, I was able to show up about five or ten minutes before the bus/train arrived and rarely had a long wait. In Pullman, the schedule is "on average, every 12 to 15 minutes." This usually works out okay, but sometimes I have to wait about 30 minutes for a bus. Because of this, I have to factor in a rather large chunk of time to ensure that I make it to class on time. This gets a lot worse when it snows.
Another bad thing is that the bus is crowded. The buses are usually pretty empty at my bus stops, so I usually don't have any difficulty finding a seat. However, when we get to the later stops, we pick up lots more people and the bus gets awfully crowded. The bus drivers are constantly telling people to crowd in tighter and make room for a few more. I think some of the bus drivers suffer from delusions of grandeur and secretly fantasize that they are piloting the last helicopter of the U.S. evacuation during the Fall of Saigon.
In my opinion, the worst part is some of the other people riding the bus. Most people have the sense to practice good hygiene. This doesn't apply to all college students. There are some kids that have not learned that it is a good idea to shower nearly every day. Frequently, these people also have not learned that they should occasionally wash their clothes. They also still have to learn that the use of cologne or perfume, no matter how much you use, doesn't entirely compensate for lack of showers and lack of clean clothing. Others need to learn to blow their nose before they go to school and they need to learn to cough and sneeze into their sleeves instead of on their fellow bus passengers.
I have a two-pronged strategy to combat this problem. First, I glare at everyone that smells like they haven't showered in a week. This dissuades most of them. The other thing that I do is claim two seats that are kind of a tight squeeze for two people. I'm a pretty fat guy (I prefer the term Nutritionally Enhanced) and this limits the number of people that can sit next to me. Eventually, the seat is usually taken by one of several petite Asian girls that attend school. They tend to practice above-average hygiene, so I have no problem with them sitting next to me.
There is a guy that I privately refer to as "The Rock." I do not think of him as "The Rock" in the sense of "He Rocks" nor do I refer to him as "The Rock" because he reminds me of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I had a class with this guy about a year and a half ago and became convinced that the space between his ears is filled with gravel, or possibly a solid mass of stone. That is why I refer to him as "The Rock."
He has a freakish ability to anticipate my bus schedule. I can leave for school two hours early to finish up some school work, and he will get on the bus a few stops after I get on. I can be running 30 minutes late and he will get on the bus. I can be right on time and he will get on the bus. It's really kind of spooky. I bet he is on the same bus as me at least five times a week. Even worse, he is not deterred by my glares and he will squeeze in next to me because he remembers me from the class that we took together a year and a half ago. He will then rattle on incessantly until we get to our destination, no matter how studiously I look out the window or pretend to talk on my cell phone.
He is a chemistry student. I guess that means he is studying to become a scientist of sorts. He is not very bright and I am surprised that he made it this far. I am sure that it would take you an hour to teach him to boil water or unlock a door. I have compassion for people that cannot grasp concepts or easily learn things. Still, I feel pretty strongly that some people should not be scientists or engineers. The processes of designing and developing procedures for maintaining and operating things like airplanes, nuclear power plants, and bridges are complex. These processes are not well suited to a trial-and-error method. I fear that "The Rock" will be doomed to a life of a chemical technician performing the same analytical procedures over and over again until he retires.
The reason that I bring him up is that he happened to sit next to me on the way to school today. He went on and on about how much trouble he was having in one of his classes. That was my first bus ride of the day. When I came home after my first class, I left school about 30 minutes late and the bus was nearly empty for my second ride of the day. "The Rock" got on at the next stop and ignored about forty empty seats to squeeze in next to me and entertain me with his feelings about the incredible coincidence that we were on the same bus twice in the same day. I have to take a bus back to school in a little while. Based on my earlier experiences today, I estimate that there is about a 90% chance I will be listening to "The Rock" commenting on the odds against us being on the same bus three times in the same day. Sigh. I guess that is how life rolls sometimes. At least he doesn't stink.
2 comments:
Thanks a lot man. I've got a cold, and my throat is all dry and raspy, and now from laughing at your misfortune on the bus I'm coughing incessantly. That's too funny.
Ah, the trades you make. The Rock vs The Stink.
Public transportation is quite the opportunity to people watch and ponder. We were all over the metro the several days in DC for MCM. Out of the hordes of people that live in DC/NoVa and the thousands in for the race, we ALWAYS ended up on the train, no matter where we were going, with the same 3 junior army guys. We ran into them in the mall. Even at the drugstore once I recall. One was referred to as little shoulder big head guy. Thus the easy recollection.
I digress...I'd be all over the bus pass vs the parking pass too.
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