Clean Air Bus
Feb. 21st, 2003 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pameladeanComing home from Eric's on Thursday, I was bleary. He has fled to warmer climes for the weekend, and had to leave the house at seven a.m. to get the bus to the airport. I'm taking care of Toliman, and the apartment administration will not permit the making of duplicate keys, so I just spent the night so he could simply hand the key over to me before he left, rather than our engaging in some complicated set of annoying procedures. Besides, it was comforting, and we got to talk about elementary school and reading under the covers with a flashlight.
In any case, I went back to sleep after he left, and Toliman approved of this so much that he kept waking me up with his purring. Also I am slightly afraid of Eric's kitchen, and therefore, while amply fed and medicated, had not made myself any coffee.
I thought the bus looked a little odd, very white somehow, but I was mostly focussed on reading the sign in front and making sure it wasn't a 17 rather than an 18. I got on and almost fell flat on my face. No steps. The pay box was at the same height as on other busses, making me feel like a short child and reinforcing my tendency to remember elementary school, to which for a while, for some reason, I took a city bus rather than a yellow school bus.
Behind the driver on either side were not seats, but lumps, with little railings atop them. I still don't know if those were for the convenience of standing passengers to clutch, or for the storage of luggage. Nobody had put anything on them. The front section of the bus had, instead of two rows of forward-facing seats and a wholly-inadequate aisle between them, two rows of inward-facing seats and a wide aisle. I was so discombobulated that I just headed for the back. The back door was about twice as wide as it is in normal busses, and also had no steps. I grabbed onto a nice sturdy black pole in the wide standing space provided by this larger stepless door -- it was reminiscent of subway trains in Britain. Then I saw the red sticker that said, lopsidedly, "WARNING," so I hastily let go and grabbed the standard aluminium piping provided to hold onto. The nice black pole was part of the door mechanism. It only rotated and moved inward; there was nothing on it to eat your hand up or anything. But I can see that it would be disconcerting if one were not warned.
The back section of the bus was reached by two steps and had a short line of forward-facing seats.
At Franklin a lot of people got out and I sat down facing west. The bus did not roar like ordinary busses. It did have very hissy doors. Also the tone that sounded when one pulled the cord to signal that one wished to get off would drive me crazy in half an hour if I were a driver. I wonder if they polled the drivers about whether they preferred this sound to the other.
When I got off I watched the bus pull away. Unsurprisingly, since I'd had twenty minutes to consider those lumps in front, it said "Clean Air Bus" on the back. I checked the Metro Transit web site. Sure enough, they have added three hybrid electric busses to their fleet. I was lucky to see one. Also it has spiffy stars on its upholstery. Since the general attitude of the federal government about clean air is that we can go back to the 1960's as fast as possible, choke, and like it, I had better write to Metro Transit and express my deep approval of their new bus.
It's a pity that I hate riding sideways.
Pamela
In any case, I went back to sleep after he left, and Toliman approved of this so much that he kept waking me up with his purring. Also I am slightly afraid of Eric's kitchen, and therefore, while amply fed and medicated, had not made myself any coffee.
I thought the bus looked a little odd, very white somehow, but I was mostly focussed on reading the sign in front and making sure it wasn't a 17 rather than an 18. I got on and almost fell flat on my face. No steps. The pay box was at the same height as on other busses, making me feel like a short child and reinforcing my tendency to remember elementary school, to which for a while, for some reason, I took a city bus rather than a yellow school bus.
Behind the driver on either side were not seats, but lumps, with little railings atop them. I still don't know if those were for the convenience of standing passengers to clutch, or for the storage of luggage. Nobody had put anything on them. The front section of the bus had, instead of two rows of forward-facing seats and a wholly-inadequate aisle between them, two rows of inward-facing seats and a wide aisle. I was so discombobulated that I just headed for the back. The back door was about twice as wide as it is in normal busses, and also had no steps. I grabbed onto a nice sturdy black pole in the wide standing space provided by this larger stepless door -- it was reminiscent of subway trains in Britain. Then I saw the red sticker that said, lopsidedly, "WARNING," so I hastily let go and grabbed the standard aluminium piping provided to hold onto. The nice black pole was part of the door mechanism. It only rotated and moved inward; there was nothing on it to eat your hand up or anything. But I can see that it would be disconcerting if one were not warned.
The back section of the bus was reached by two steps and had a short line of forward-facing seats.
At Franklin a lot of people got out and I sat down facing west. The bus did not roar like ordinary busses. It did have very hissy doors. Also the tone that sounded when one pulled the cord to signal that one wished to get off would drive me crazy in half an hour if I were a driver. I wonder if they polled the drivers about whether they preferred this sound to the other.
When I got off I watched the bus pull away. Unsurprisingly, since I'd had twenty minutes to consider those lumps in front, it said "Clean Air Bus" on the back. I checked the Metro Transit web site. Sure enough, they have added three hybrid electric busses to their fleet. I was lucky to see one. Also it has spiffy stars on its upholstery. Since the general attitude of the federal government about clean air is that we can go back to the 1960's as fast as possible, choke, and like it, I had better write to Metro Transit and express my deep approval of their new bus.
It's a pity that I hate riding sideways.
Pamela
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-21 11:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-21 08:59 pm (UTC)Do the unclean ones have the lumps in front, or yet more seats? I originally thought, finally, they recognize that a bus that goes to the airport should have somewhere for people to put their luggage. When I lived on the Number 7 route, I was always seeing befuddled European travellers trying to figure out what to do with their huge dufflebags. And it's very silly of Metro Transit not to think of that when doing an airport route.
Pamela
no subject
Date: 2003-02-22 01:15 pm (UTC)I wonder if the light rail will have space.