I heard it on COTA....

Oh, I love little children, especially those who are taught the F-word in public by their adoring parents. This charming scene occurred a couple of weeks ago on the eastbound No. 2, headed to Reynoldsburg. I heard the adorable little tyke saying, "Fuh! Fuh!" to the laughter of his mother, and two or three friends. "What's he saying?" one asked. "Fuck," the mother replied matter-of-factly. Laughter ensued. By the time the quartet reached their stop, the toddler had graduated to "Fuh you!" To the mother's credit, she did tell her friends to stop prompting the child to say the word. But I bet by now, it's firmly ensconced in his nascent vocabulary.

Of bedbugs and buses

A couple of weeks ago, I swore I saw a COTA rider tweak a bedbug off his shirt and squeeze it to death. This observation underlies one of the my basest fears of life in general, and of COTA, in particular: getting and having to deal with an infestation of bedbugs!

This event occurred just a couple of weeks from my return from New York City, which was all a-twitter about the discovery of bedbugs on several Brooklyn lines, which resulted in the trains being taken out of service.

I don't know how high the incidence of bedbug infestation might be on COTA buses, but you can damn well bet that they are there. COTA serves the Columbus underclass--those hit hard by poverty, unemployment, less than hygienic living conditions, as well as scores of homeless folks. However, as we well know, you can be living on Riverside Drive and find you have picked up bedbugs. But the demographic of COTA's ridership would appear to make it more likely you might run into the little bastards. So you know they are there, lurking in the cracks and crevices of the seats and windows.

According to Orkin, the nation's top pest-control company, Columbus is No. 3 in its 2014 list of the nation's Top 10 cities for bedbugs, based on calls for service they receive for treatments. In fact, Columbus moved up three spots from its No. 6 standing in 2013. Perhaps even more ominous for all Ohioans, four of the Top 10 are Ohio cities: Cincinnati (No. 5), the Cleveland/Akron/Canton metroplex (No. 6), and Dayton (No. 7). Only Chicago and Los Angeles top the Capitol City.

I don't know what kind of precautions COTA takes to prevent bedbug infestation, but I bet they are minimal--after all, not much stops them except for the banned insecticide DDT (I've often wondered whether the current explosion of bedbugs in the U.S. is linked some nefarious terrorist plot). The buses don't seem to be cleaned too often for any reason, let alone for bedbugs. I suppose I could call them to find out some answers, but I'd blow my cover, and I don't want to do that yet. However, I have noticed that new buses have black vinyl seat coverings, which makes it easier to see the little buggers. I still cringe when I have to sit on the fabric-covered seats, and always look around for creepy crawlers (and stains, chewing gum, and other evidence of "wet spots"). I shake my stuff when I get off the bus--and then just pray!

I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

I've been away for awhile, well almost 18 months, as a matter of fact. I left Columbus for a year to finish a professional program, and I moved to Dayton, Ohio. I thought about continuing the blog there, as I did ride the Dayton Regional Transit Authority conveyances most of the time. They still have a lot of electric cable-car type buses there, and I generally found service pretty good. Also, they ran late on Sundays, something COTA does not do (more on that in a subsequent post). But I'm back in Columbus now, and still victim to COTA's crimes against commuters. I hope you'll read this blog, and comment. You don't have to be a COTA "consumer" to enjoy it. I try to mix a little griping about service and such, with observations of human behavior that I observe while riding. So, if you are a former reader, welcome back. I'll try to keep you informed and entertained. If a new reader, enjoy. And by all means, COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT. After all, someone is reading this: I clocked over 500 views (some of them mine) during May 2012!