I rode the bus to Sinclair for the first time on the first day of spring quarter. I never planned on taking the bus to school, but both of my vehicles died over spring break—one from long life and the other from catastrophic failure. I’ve been on the RTA ever since.
There are a lot of things I never considered before riding the bus that now I deal with every day. I never worried about the weather. I made my own schedule. I didn’t consider the cost of transportation, unless you count gas as a cost. I had a car. What did I care?
Now I check the weather. I have alarms on my phone so I don’t miss my bus. My bus pass is part of my monthly expenses, and time is a precious commodity I schedule with care.
I’ve been learning a lot about public transportation, things that my co-riders seem to have memorized already. For example, there’s a yellow strip that you have to push on the back door before you exit. Not all stops are covered or easy to get to. There’s a difference between northbound and southbound traffic, a lesson that landed me in Salem instead of Sinclair.
Since I started riding the bus my respect for people who depend on public transportation has gone up tremendously. That’s not to say I didn’t respect them before, only that I appreciate the difficulties they face more than I ever did when I had a car. I see now how a trip to the doctor’s office can turn into an all-day excursion or how getting to work on time can be thwarted by a bus that’s running 10 minutes late.
I’m not going to complain. In fact, I’m grateful that Dayton has a public transportation system. I can get to school, the grocery store and home from the bus, and I can get a discounted bus pass through the Tartan Bookstore. Even though I have two fewer cars than I did last quarter, I feel lucky that I can still get around.