Meryl is always telling me what a pain in the ass having a car is, and what a nuisance driving can be. It's not like these revelations shock me or anything. I just never really think about it. Dating someone with a car, especially this time of year, has opened my eyes a little bit and given me some insight. Take for instance two Saturdays ago. We're at Carriage Place in a 45 minute parking spot. After deciding to stay and see a movie, we have to re-park in a long-term spot or risk being ticketed or towed or whatever they do. So we're pulling out, and an old woman calls to our attention that Meryl's Focus is now on one flat tire. This doesn't happen on the COTA line, and if it did, I would simply get off the bus and, depending on where I was along the line, wait for the next one or walk to my destination and not give it another thought. So this flat tire turns into quite the ordeal, as I've only ever dealt with the situation once in my life prior to this. Eventually we handled it, and once we got going with a plan of action it didn't take long to put the spare on, but still, a pain in the ass. Add to that the expense and time-consumption of buying a new tire and NO THANKS, says bus guy.
Anyhow, this brings us to the fabulous snow storm you may have heard about if you live in Columbus. Long story short, I dug her car out its icy captivity yesterday afternoon, and while it wasn't difficult or particularly annoying, it's just another thing I don't have to deal with as a regular passenger of mass transportation.
I'm sure there are great things about owning a car, or even just being a licensed driver. And I curse GOD HIMSELF every time I can't focus enough to read a book or watch a TV show or do anything but lay quietly. In this instance, though, my dizziness may be a blessing in disguise. Long-term, I should probably live somewhere that runs a few more bus routes, but for now, COTA gets me where I need to go. THANKS, COTA!
I'm not as happy about it as that guy, but hey, I'm not complainin'.
6 comments:
Hm. That guy doesn't really look that happy. All told I am quite happy with COTA. I think the next few years will be better for them, and that will mean more routes and more buses. But it is nice, aside from standing outside when it's freezing (literally, otherwise it's not a big deal) waiting for a bus. I dug Lauren out and by the time I got back somebody had backed into the spot I had created. WEAK.
I have the worst luck with cars... earlier this week, I flattened a tire on a pothole, and didn't realize it until I got to work. So, I slapped on my donut before I left to go home, and I'll God-damed if I didn't flatten my donut on the SAME pothole no more than 30 minutes after putting it on. Add this to the fact that I was on my way to court for a traffic violation (which may or may not have been a DUI) when I flattened said donut, and I'll echo your sentiment. Fuck cars.
On the other hand, when that really bad some snow/freezing rain/six inches of snow storm from '98 hit? COTA buses were sliding. THAT was terrifying. I had visions of being thrown around like a BB in a paint can and then I found out that I never should have gotten on the bus in the first place because my workplace had closed for the weather. WACK.
I'm grumpy about COTA a lot, probably because after having experienced "big city" public transportation, COTA is pretty woefully inconsistent and the company's policies are often really anti-consumer seeming(don't wait for someone who is heading to the stop, don't give a fuck if you just drive on past, it's a-ok to be 45 minutes late as long as the traffic is busy rather than sending out another bus). A lot of that is due to lack of money, which hopefully will be handled soon.
HOWEVER, I am super fuckin' thrilled with the student-driven CABS buses. How they manage to consistently outperform COTA, I have no idea, but, while the morning buses are always standing-room-only, they're also *always on time*, down to the minute, which rocks. I've had to wait an extra five to ten minutes for a bus maybe three times since I started using them, and I have had classes at 8:30 every weekday since last January.
I have always marveled at the casual callousness of COTA drivers' policy. A lot of it seems self-contradictory when you factor in the demerit drivers get for leaving stops early. Lucas really picked out the gem of COTA suckiness.
However, I would want to see some numbers before joining the choir praising CABS too highly. I've personally experienced problems with CABS at (seemingly) three times the rate Lucas has just this year alone. I am actually now genuinely interested in a statistical study of COTA timeliness versus CABS. COTA fails on customer service with no contest whatsoever, but I honestly can't fathom how the CABS system experience I am getting is the result of studious oversight.
The main thing I hate about COTA is their routes. (Except maybe the number 2 [Haha "number 2"])
Instead of just having buses run up and down major streets, each street having its own bus, buses have these demented routes and it takes ages (for someone new to the city) to figure out how to get anywhere. Also, the times that the buses come seem really strange; while waiting for the CABS bus, I was reading the schedule for the number 4 and the times between different buses were something like: 17 min, 9 min, 13 min, 14 min, 10 min, 35 min, 12 min. What routes are these buses going on that the times are that irregular?
With respect to CABS, I'll say that I find the ER very very reliable in the morning, but later in the day the sometimes come a few minutes early, and I've seen one drive by the stop on my way to it more than half the times I've taken the bus after about 9. The NE, CLN and CLS, don't really stick to their "every 7 min." schedule, but since there are usually any 2 I can take and they come pretty frequently, it's no skin off my nose.
I desperately miss the subway this winter. Sniff.
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