Leave the driving to RTS
As gas prices continue to climb, area residents are increasingly turning to alternate methods of transportation. Earlier this week, Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA), announced that ridership has grown so-much-so that the agency can afford to roll the fare back to $1. With more than 50,000 Rochesterians taking advantage of RGRTA’s services every day, this RocLoop staffer decided to spend a day on the bus.
A dollar and a dream
The last time I rode a bus it was the bright yellow kind and I was a sophomore in high school. At 8 a.m. Tuesday, May 6, I stuffed a wad of dollar bills into my pocket and walked the three blocks to the nearest RGRTA bus shelter. As I stood on the corner of Lake Avenue and Alameda Street, I hoped my bus would be one of the ones wrapped up like a huge McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger—I hadn’t eaten breakfast. Within minutes, three buses appeared in the distance. I suddenly realized that I didn’t have a clue what to do next!
“Where does this bus go?,” I asked the group of teenagers waiting at the bus stop with me.
“All buses go downtown,” replied the one in the Wiley Coyote jacket.
I was the fifth passenger in line when Wiley Coyote turned around to inform me(way too loudly, in my opinion) that this bus was reserved for School of the Arts students. To add insult to injury, he called me “Ma’am”. I silently stepped out of line and hoped a huge anvil would come crashing down and put me out of my misery. Wiley Coyote gave me a 15-year-old’s best approximation of a concerned look and pointed to the next bus.
At 8:05 a.m. I pulled a crumpled dollar bill from my pocket and boarded the No. 1 Lake Limited.
An all-day pass
Apparently, I suffer from selective hearing or a case of wishfull thinking, because I could have sworn the radio commercial proclaimed that it now cost only $1 to ride the bus. My bus driver informed me that the fare was still $1.25, however, the reduced fare is scheduled to take effect later this summer.
As I held up the line searching for change, a half dozen complete strangers offered me quarters. The bus driver patiently explained how I could buy an all-day pass, which would allow me to get off and on different buses all day, for $3.
“The people on the bus are really nice,” I thought to myself as I attempted to feed my hopelessly wrinkled dollar bills into the till next to the driver.
“Come on already!,” somebody at the back of the bus said in an exaggerated stage whisper.
I found a seat and took my place on the already crowded bus. I lost count of the number of times the bus stopped to pick up or drop off passengers, but I became keenly aware of the fact that I require a lot more personal space than I assumed I would.
My seatmate seemed oblivious to the fact that I struggled to stay balanced on the tiny portion of seat he allowed me. His widespread legs claimed two-thirds of the seat. The bookbag dangling from the shoulder of the passenger standing in the aisle to my left, tapped rhythmically against the left side of my head as the bus lurched and swayed toward downtown.
At 8:17 a.m. the Lake Limited pulled up to the stop at Main Street and Saint Paul. I was happy to get off.
How do you get there from here?
I spent the next ten minute staring helplessly at a broken, blank monitor and trying to decipher the colorful lines and squiggles on the route map suspended from the ceiling of the downtown bus shelter.
In my mind I had mapped out a journey that would take me from my house, to MCC, then to the Marketplace Mall, back downtown to the RocLoop office and finally back home.
Later, I would discover that I could have printed out a detailed itinerary, complete with bus numbers and departure times, simply by logging on to the RGRTS website. Because of poor planning on my part, I decided to do the next best thing. I fell in step with a group of what I assumed to be MCC students(they were carrying bookbags and one had on sweatpants with “MCC” in gold letters emblazzoned on one leg)and crossed the street.
“Does this bus go to MCC?”, I asked.
“Uh-huh,” was the unanimous reply.
At 8:30 I boarded the No. 20 and slid my all-day pass across the automated reader. With smug self-satisfaction I took a seat.
Taking the long way home
Obviously, patience is a virtue I don’t possess. As the No. 20 rolled along the most indirect route possible, seemingly stopping every ten feet, I was tempted to pull the metal wire that tripped the stop signal more than once.
When the bus came to yet another stop near East Henrietta Road, I realized that MCC was less than a quater mile away. I could have walked the distance quicker. But I stayed put as the No. 20 zig-zagged toward my destination.
“This is ridiculous!,” I must have said outloud.
“Did you say something?,” my new seatmate asked.
“Oh…No,” I answered, suddenly feeling car-sick.
At 8:55 the No. 20 pulled into the loop at MCC. I aborted my plans of going to the Mall and prepared myself for the return trip back downtown. It was 1:30 when I walked the three blocks back from the bus stop to my front door.
Cost versus Convenience
For $3, less than the cost of one gallon of gasoline, I had the opportunity to ride anywhere the RTS bus went. I fingered my expired all-day pass nostalgically as I pump $56 worth of Regular unleaded into my tank.
