Blog category: Public Transportation

Megabus and the Real-Life Ethical Dilemma | November 9th, 2009

Damn, I felt today like I was in the boat scene from The Dark Knight.

Most of you dudes know I split my time these days between school in Ann Arbor and home in Chicago. The best way to get back and forth is Megabus, which I took yet again today.

(For anyone interested, here’s a quick cost-benefit analysis of the transportation links between Ann Arbor and Chicago:

1. Megabus – Cost averages $25, mostly comfortable, takes 4.5 hours including stop for food — though sadly, only at Hardee’s. Nasty.
2. Amtrak – Cost is $29 on weekdays but $75 on weekends. Most comfortable option, but delayed so often that it averages six hours per trip.
3. Driving – Cost depends on MPG (about 3/4 tank when I take the VW) but you can’t really do any work. Takes about four hours, and you then have to find parking.
4. Greyhound – Hellz no.)

To finally get to the point of my post, today we hit the food break at the Love’s truck stop — the one with the Hardee’s — at mile marker 110, which not only has just one fast-food option but also plays Fox News in the dining area. (Megabus used to stop at the truck stop in Sawyer, Mich., which has a Popeye’s, BK, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut Express. Now that is a quality junk-food spread. I think Love’s must have started paying them to subject us to Hardee’s.) I ate a Thickburger anyway and we left 30 minutes later.

Next up was the exercise in group morality: The driver came on the intercom about 20 miles past Love’s and announced that a passenger was left behind at the truck stop. Whoops. The driver had made several announcements when we stopped that everyone had to be back on by 3 p.m. EST, but whoever this person was somehow failed to note the time. The driver initially said he was going to turn around despite his anger and pick up the person, which would have resulted in us being about 40-50 minutes late in arriving. A bunch of passengers told the driver to keep going anyway — because hey, screw that anonymous guy — so he then announced he was not turning around.

I and the passengers around me found this a bit heartless — anybody who plans an urgent event based on a bus’s on-time arrival is an idiot — so I went downstairs and told the driver he should go back, and despite us both being pissed at the passenger, I could tell he felt the same way. He went on the intercom one more time and said he was turning around, but then enough people howled in protest that we ended up heading to Ann Arbor as scheduled, leaving the unknown passenger to fend for him/herself until the next Megabus comes through. With that bus not leaving Chicago until 4:45 p.m. CST, that comes out to an almost six-hour wait at the truck stop if there isn’t some other ride available. Ouch.

So what was the right course of action? After all, the passenger was at fault for not paying attention to the multiple announcements about being back to the bus on time. How would have you voted? Drop some ethical knowledge in the comments section and let me know. Also, give me a ride next time so I can avoid these philosophical quandaries.

Jimmy Carter, Moon Landing, Milwaukee, Le Peep, iPod | July 19th, 2009

I’m back from Indianapolis. Let’s go:

• So Wednesday was the 30th anniversary of President Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech. I’ve heard about this speech before as a turning point in his presidency, so I went ahead and read the full text. To sum it up in a phrase, I don’t understand why this speech was so hated upon — it seems to me to be right on the money.

  I haven’t watched the video — though I posted it below, so I should probably get on that — so a lot is missing in terms of the substance vs. delivery view. But in reading it, it’s striking for sure how much of the national debate is stuck exactly where it was in 1979. Here’s President Carter talking about energy independence, new forms of energy, and the corrupting influence of consumerism. Last I checked, it’s 2009 and we’re still talking about every one of those things. The historical verdict seems to be that conservatives’ favorite punching bag scored a lot of points immediately after the speech, but then fired most of his Cabinet and made himself look yet again like an ineffective leader. The guy was definitely lacking in a lot of his Presidency, but I think the speech hateration — “unprecedented disaster”? — is off the mark.

• This NY Times opinion piece is Tom Wolfe at his most annoying — exclamation! points! lots of emdashes … with ellipses! — but I think somewhere in there he made a good point about the philosophical aspects of the space program that don’t get touted.
• I’m noticing that there’s all Rust Belt downtowns have a part that always conforms to the same standard. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee — you will always find a part of downtown that has a well-trafficked bus stop with the usual cast of characters, a run-down Dunkin Donuts, a parking garage and a near-total lack of office workers in the business-casual sense. (In Detroit, this encompasses everything within the city limits.) All of these elements will inevitably be present. This should probably get a name, so visitors know to look for it. Brownbagville? The Dunkin District?

  For real, that could be anywhere between Minnesota and Upstate New York.

• To all my NU readaz: did you know Le Peep is a franchise? I had no idea of this until I ate at one in Indianapolis this morning. Maybe I could have learned this if Le Peep were open other than 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. (I would like to thank Paul for that joke from the year 1999.)
• Anybody ever dealt with Apple service before? My iPod is pissed at me and I need to know how helpful I can expect them to be. Thanks, yo.

Later.

So Long, D.C. | May 20th, 2008

What I’ll Miss Least: The transient nature of the city–at least the whitey part of the city. (NW, plus Capitol Hill SE and NE where we live.) I can’t shake the feeling that most people are here just to soon go somewhere else, and thus it’s harder to feel settled here than it has been in other mobile, creative neighborhoods of cities where I’ve lived. With NYC abuzz 24-7, settled was a relative term, but at least it makes everyone feel like one of the bees in the hive.

First runner up: The summer heat and humidity. Like swimming without a pool!

Also placed: Our old-ass apartment with its lack of air circulation and power outlets; confusing and poorly labeled road system; not enough going-out neighborhoods and the tiny size of the ones that exist; Metro delays, large areas of the city unserved by Metro trains and the lack of conductors who don’t pronounce “Judiciary Square” as “Ju-dish-u-ary”.

What I’ll Miss Most: Being in the political heart of the U.S. and everything that comes with it. In no other town in the U.S. can you to walk up to a random person in a bar and find out they work as a State Department liaison to Pakistan, or as an assistant for Ted Kennedy, or as a journalist working on an in-depth book about the failure of the Bush presidency. (And there’s never a shortage of the latter.) With the government comes the media swarm in which I work and the lobbyists, consultants and hangers-on that are part of how the country runs. Most people would probably find this group to be disgusting, and it often is. But if you want to be a part of the national conversation at the top level, this is where to bring the microphone.

First runner up: The great places to do some roadwork. My default running spot was the National Mall and surrounding area, and that was just as cool as it sounds.

Also placed: The cherry milkshake from Ben’s Chili Bowl; hot female Hill staffers walking around my hood; Eastern Market; the beautiful neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park; the fact that while it was still old-ass (see above), you could walk out the door of our building and see the Capitol dome and the Supreme Court; being only four hours from Pittsburgh; the fish-taco combo at California Tortilla; cherry blossoms and the other spring blooms; free museums.

Wish us luck on the move tomorrow; nothing cheers the soul quite like loading, driving 900 miles and unloading a UHaul 17-foot truck full of all your earthly goods.

Chicago buds, see you soon.

White Folks’ Subway | January 13th, 2008

I’m proud to have lived in three locations not on this map.

Image!

Washington Metro | January 11th, 2008

I thought I would share this Yelp.com review that I wrote for the WMATA. I was particularly inspired after calling four times today to fix a Smartcard problem and never being able to reach a human being:

“You know, when I first moved here, I looked at the concrete archway stations and green/red lights that make up the Metro platforms and thought, “Wow, this transit system looks mad cool, like an early ’80s dystopian sci-fi flick in the vein of ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Aliens’.”

But two years of Metrorail has brought the analogy full-circle: today I see the Washington Metro Transit Authority as a restrictive facehugger, wrapping its spiny appendages around the area’s commuter throat to spawn a series of acid-blooded delays, chest-burstingly high fares, and unresponsive customer service that makes you want to jump into a furnace only to be implausibly cloned 200 years later.

One extra star though for air-conditioned platforms. Those are nice.”