To the STM;
I don't know why I should expect reasonable customer service, ever. I can't count the number of times I was yelled at for using student tickets back when tickets still existed, and now I'm forced to pay for a monthly pass if I want the discount. Obvs it was cheaper when I could get 10 reduced fare tickets on my Opus before.
The worst though, are the buses. The buses never run on time. The first bus doesn't come, and the next one comes late. The bus drivers are mean. No, really. A bus driver once gave me false information about the bus that I was on. Maybe it was an accident, but really, shouldn't he know anyway? Once I was accused of fraud by a metro lady.
Also, regular transit fare is expensive. The Opus doesn't work with the trains. The train doesn't even run near me. What's the point of telling me my Opus card expires October 2010 if you're going to make me renew it in 2009? Why do I have to pay $13 to have my Opus renewed?
Thanks for expanding the metro in every direction except west.
I hate you with every fibre of my being.
To transit users;
It's not that I hate you all, but sometimes you just suck the fun out of my day.
Just so we're clear, we're all using public transportation for the same reason: to get somewhere. So, you know, I'm probably just as late for school as you are for work. At the end of the day, I want to get home just as badly as you do. Why do you have to make it so hard?
My number one pet peeve, and this seems to happen every day of my life, is when people stand on the left side of the escalator. This is common knowledge everywhere that on a highway, the left lane is for faster drivers. The further right you are, the slower you go. I know that and I don't even drive. The same applies for the escalator. If you stand on the left side and everyone else stands on the right, you are blocking the entire escalator. Everyone behind you who wants to catch a bus hates your guts and wants you to explode into a pile of dust (or maybe just me). How is it even hard to figure out when the whole left side is open? Here are some things to think about before using the escalator: if you can't make it up the whole way, DON'T DO IT. GET ON THE RIGHT SIDE. DON'T WALK HALFWAY UP, REALIZE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE AN ASTHMA ATTACK, AND STOP. At the top of the escalator, a lot of people stop walking for some reason. If there are a lot of people behind you, this ends up creating a standing line. Keep walking until you're off the escalator. It's not that scary, I promise.
The other thing that bothers me is the lines for buses. Taking the 470 at anytime from 4-6:30 sucks. Everyone knows that. The line wraps around the sidewalk and overlaps other bus stop lines. In really shitty weather everyone is miserable and cold and wants to go home obviously. But why are you making a second line? I get it that you think you're not going to make the first bus, so you stand "first" in line to be "first" on the next bus that comes, except what you're really doing is butting in front of everyone else who is already in line. Like, I'm in the real line and I miss the first bus, and then you come along and get in this fake second line and the next bus comes and YOU JUST INTEGRATE YOURSELF INTO THE REAL LINE I HATE YOU OMG YOU ARE RUINING MY LIFE
SRSLY
IT'S SO FUCKING COLD OUTSIDE
GET IN LINE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE
Do you know why this irritates me so? Because how do you tell these people what they are doing is cheating and annoying? Like in elementary school is that what they taught you? That it's okay to butt in line? Next time I see you at course change I'm just going to start a new line and go in front of you. FORGET EVER STANDING IN A LINE, I'M JUST GOING TO MAKE MY OWN LINE AND GO WHENEVER I FEEL LIKE IT
Lastly, I don't want to hear your music on the way home. So if you have headphones you should use them. If you have headphones and are using them and I can hear your music over my music then I hate you, I just hate you
I want to rip your headphones from your ears and punch you in the face and make your eyes bleed
Sometimes when I get mad I feel violent. I'm glad I have this blog to rant to or else I might bottle up all my feelings inside and just cry myself to sleep instead. Sidenote I feel like I am blogging autowin style
That is, not using periods
leaving those sentences hanging in mid-air
9 comments:
Thank you.
I just took the bus home today, and wanted to kill so many people on that bus.
You know who are annoying to be on the bus with? Old people. No seriously. I accidentally tapped a lady when the bus lurched forward, and she was like:
"...You... you... hit me! You hit me! You know how much pain I'm in? You hit an elderly woman! Who's going to pay for my medical bills?"
How should I know? And really, if you're the woman with the glass bones, don't take the bus. Go get in a padded van filled with cotton balls or the Pope mobile.
ARGH.
lolol this made me laugh because it's all true. especiall about the buses not showing up and then the next one shows up late. once, i missed the first bus, and then a 2nd bus came, and just as i step onto the bus (the buss was filled with people) the bus driver decided to get off the bus and have a lunch break! btw, this was in the middle of the route, not like at fairview or anything. therefore, i missed 2 transfer buses after he decided to come back. me = not a happy camper
lololol @ the 2nd line thing. ppl that wait for the 210 at fairview every morning to go through this bs constantly. it's terrible. how would they react if we started a 3rd line in competition with the 2nd line? ouuu that would be badass....
At last, I have been lured into reading your blog by that most excellent title. I knew we couldn't be friends for nothing!
Love E
why why why are buses the most awful thing ever?
this morning a woman got on the bus but wouldn't take her baby out of her stroller. [apparently it's illegal to leave your baby in a stroller on the bus.] the bus driver kept asking her to pick up her baby so that she wouldn't get whiplash but the woman just stood there and refused to. so after 5 minutes of sitting there with all the doors open, the bus driver made us all get off and wait for the next bus to come.
ironically, i was reading a section in my sociology text book about what happens when people refuse to follow rules.
"I want to rip your headphones from your ears and punch you in the face and make your eyes bleed" YES. I hate public transit. My city "has engaged in some of the most pro-automobile transport policies anywhere in the world" in the past 50 yrs (thanks wiki) which means awful public transport and me having a VERY HIGH ANGER LEVEL. VERY HIGH.
I moved into walking distance of everywhere I need to be 2 months ago and it was the best decision I ever made. Now the only bus I have to catch is the free inner city bus when I'm feeling lazy, and I don't get too mad on that because I never have to buy a ticket or pay. Yay.
Good luck with future transport endeavours, I know you need it.
p.s. I think we should all start a public transit victims support group or something. Seriously, read these comments.
I've been in France too long. The concept of queuing for the bus rather than mobbing the door - even if it is an unfair multiple queue system - just made my head explode.
ashley: i know right? and i always feel bad if i see like middle aged - oldish people because i have to decide if i should give them my seat but it's like "argh i just want to siiiiiit". also once my friend dropped powered candy on an old lady's head when the bus lurched. lol.
beckii: it would be so badass but it would just create a mob and then we would all fight and i would start bringing a baseball bat to school.
anonymous: you are the wind beneath my wings! -e
laura: omg that's so annoying. and it's so weird because you know no one wants to get off the bus but no one ever says anything. how do you tell strangers they're doing something wrong or being inappropriate?
lucia: ah, that's so lucky. see i live in the suburbs so public transport is essential 'cause i don't a car. it's so frustrating to be entirely dependent on it!
haha, also, yeah, definitely. and it doesn't seem to be limited to one city. PUBLIC TRANSPORT WORKERS ARE OUT TO GET US.
rachelwashere: there are no lines in france?!? that makes MY head explode! that must be chaos!
If you ever get a chance to read Stephen Clarke's Talk to the Snail, it's hilarious and tells you a lot about France (from a Brit perspective, but actually many of my French students recommended it to me). There's a funny part where he notes, a bit facetiously, that a British convenience store pulled out of France not long after introducing forced (with ropes and such) queues. :P
Everything is generally a push your way to the front because you are the most important contest that you just have to learn to get into the mentality of. I didn't realize how stressful I found until I was in England and realized that the the automated "wait in line for the intercom to tell you what till to go to" system at Boots gave me an enormous sense of relief. Today I had a young guy tell me to go ahead of him at the register because he was waiting on something and I was sure for a moment it was a trick or I had misunderstood or he was making a feeble attempt at hitting on me. :s
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