Must Be the Full "Blood" Moon Total Eclipse and Mercury in Retrograde...

No sooner than I had posted my previous post on the horrors of riding COTA on Game Day or during any other large public event occurring in Columbus, they did it again!

This time, I'm waiting for the Eastbound No. 2 to go grocery shopping at the East Main St. Kroger store, just on the border of the East Side and Bexley. It's scheduled to arrive at about 12:11 P.M., and I leave the apartment at 12:07. I notice someone else waiting at the stop--a pretty good sign the bus hasn't rolled by yet.

I like to go grocery shopping on Sunday because I pack my lunch everyday, and it doesn't make sense to shop earlier in the week so that things can have an extra day or two to sit in the refrigerator and spoil. I hate throwing out food. If I know what I'm going to get at the store, I can hustle through and actually make the return bus headed downtown, and the whole she-bang can be done in about 40 minutes. Of course, if I had a car, the time spent doing this chore would be cut by at least half.

I strike up a conversation with the other rider waiting at the stop, a pleasant woman in her 30s who was on her way to the WalMart in Whitehall. 12:15, 12:16, 12:17, no bus. We start to get worried; I suspect that the bus came early. "It didn't because I started walking down here from 17th and Main and I would have seen it if it had gone by," the woman assured me.

To pass the time, we trade war stories about riding COTA. We're getting pretty nervous now, so she calls COTA Customer Service (!) and inquires about the tardy bus.

Just then, it appears--way off schedule and 15 minutes late--at 12:25 P.M.!

We board, and I ask the driver, a blubber-faced, stringy-haired dude who wears nerd glasses and has never been particularly friendly to me or anyone else as far as I've noticed, why the bus was so late.

Instead of being kind and perhaps even offering an apology for the inconvenience his tardiness caused, he instead spat, "Call COTA and ask them!"

"We already did!" I retorted.

Maybe that total eclipse that is supposed to occur tonight is the problem. It's a "blood moon," a predictor of all kinds of calamity and chaos. And Mercury is in retrograde, too, which means missed appointments, meetings, miscommunication, and possibly MISSED BUSES....

That's it! Guess I'll blame it on the moon and the stars!

I Heard It on COTA (an occasional post on snatches of conversations heard on the bus)

Time: Thursday night, a week or so ago
Place: Downtown-bound No. 2
Set-Up: Haggard-looking young dude, early 20s, sleeveless t-shirt exposing numerous tattoos on his biceps, saggy pants, and with that menacing demeanor that seems typical of today's youth, gets on bus with equally haggard-looking girlfriend sporting a bad dye job. He's carrying what appears to be a cage; I recognize it as a raccoon trap. He places it on the floor, and stands just behind the driver. She goes further into the bus, and takes a seat about halfway back. Is she embarrassed that she's with a guy carrying around a raccoon trap?

Everyone on the bus strains their necks to see what's in the "cage."

A group of women who, from their jovial conversation and laughter, sound glad to be off their office-cleaning jobs, board the bus. One of them looks down at the cage, and asks, "What's in the cage?"

"Nuthin'," replies the dude. "It's a raccoon trap. It's empty."

One of other women, looking him up and down, walks up aisle and quips: "I see why that raccoon ran away!"

* * * *

Time: Friday, Sept. 25, about 5:50 P.M.
Place: Northbound No. 81
Set-Up: A portly woman, mid-30s, sitting up front, is having an animated discussion with the driver, talking about her no-good boyfriend. I pick up the monologue from there, as I'm just boarding the bus.

"My momma taught me how to shoot, and I got a few guns.

"One night I'm cleanin' my guns, got 'em laid out on a sheet on the table, and I'm just cleanin', and he walks in, and he asks me what I'm doing, and I ask him to choose one, and he's askin' me why, and I tell him, ''cause that's the one I'm goin' to shoot your ass with!'"

Game Day Horror

Service on the buses yesterday, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015, was absolutely abominable. Why? Beyond the fact that it was Saturday, and COTA tends to adopt a somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward service on the weekends, it was also GAME DAY--that day when Ohio State has a home football game and everything in Columbus (including seemingly time itself) comes to an utter and complete standstill.

I've bitched about how events like marathons and festivals downtown tend to have a paralyzing effect on what passes as Capitol City's public transportation system. While it doesn't seem to do any good to do as far as getting the suits running COTA from their downtown atelier to listen, it does help me vent--and perhaps prevent an unwanted coronary.

Yesterday, I attempted to go from East Main Street (Carpenter Street stop) to the Short North (Fourth Avenue stop). I just about gave up trying to go. The bus was supposed to be at Ohio Avenue, right up the street within easy view, at 7:16 P.M.. Finally, about 10 minutes later, it arrived, just as I was just about to call it a day. I was late for my 7:30 appointment.

Trying to get back was even more of a nightmare: I ended up walking part of the way home. At 9:30, with the after-game party still in full swing and traffic in the usual Saturday night swirl, I was standing at the downtown-bound North High Street stop at Fifth Avenue, looking forward to escaping post-game Ground Zero. A downtown East Main Street bus was due to arrive at 9:41. I waited, and waited. Nothing showed. At least two No. 2s whose terminus was Broad and High streets came by, and a couple of No. 21s, the Night Owls that run through downtown on to the German Village and the Brewery District. One of the drivers told me and a friend, also trying to get out east, that the eastbound bus was "running late, but behind me aways." We continued to wait, the vitriol starting to build. (While still standing and waiting, we saw the same bus and driver rolling up North High Street about half-an-hour later.)

No eastbound bus ever came. My friend said earlier in the day, he was on a northbound No. 2 when an unscheduled detour around High Street occurred. The bus ran up North Fourth Avenue, returned to High Street at Fifth Avenue, then went back to N. Fourth for a detour that was to run all the way through to Hudson Street. I suppose the strategy helped the driver avoid traffic bottlenecks from the game at Ohio Stadium letting out. But it sure didn't help the passengers any.

Finally, at around 10:20 P.M., after standing on the corner for nearly an hour, we decided reluctantly to board a downtown-bound No. 5. The logic was that if COTA were doing impromptu reroutes to avoid High Street--and by that time all post-football game traffic had thinned out--then we might have a shot at catching an eastbound bus once we got downtown. We arrived downtown at about 10:30, and I decided I was not going to stand around downtown for another half-an-hour to wait for the 11:00 lineup to roll out. The kind driver (a Syrian immigrant from New Jersey--I do complement when it's deserved) told us his route ended at Mound Street and Grant Avenue and we stayed on his bus to go as far east as we could. Never saw an eastbound No. 2 the entire time.

So, we ended up walking the eastbound part of the trip, for me a good quarter-mile, and for my friend, who had to go about six blocks further, even longer. I got home just before 11 P.M., and about 15 minutes later I heard an eastbound bus zoom by. I was pissed but glad I was home-albeit over an hour later than I should have been. My friend called to let me know he got home around the time the bus went by my place.

The exasperating, maddening experience was really unnecessary, and brought a few questions to mind for COTA planners: First of all, why aren't riders notified and provided alternatives when you decide to make an unscheduled detour? Why couldn't have at least one of the four downtown No. 2s and Night Owls we watched go by while we waited been pressed into service to pick up slack left by non-existent eastbound service? And why, oh why, don't you have an effective, cohesive plan to provide reliable, adequate service during the large events that the city is increasingly fond of hosting (in its continuing effort to become a "destination" city)?

I don't know whether the suits at COTA read this blog--the only one of its kind in central Ohio as far as I am aware--or if they do, just chuckle at it with amusement. Most of them probably never have to ride the bus. But if Columbus hopes to be a top-rate city, it needs to be able to handle large events like OSU games. The game was long over when the second incident occurred, and shouldn't have had any effect on nighttime service. As long as Columbus is unable to provide timely and effective bus service, the dreams of ranking with other cities like New York and Chicago will remain just that--elusive dreams.

Missing the bus--again

To the dude driving the University City-bound No. 81 tonight as I tried to board around 8:15:

Thanks, big guy, for not bothering to stop for me when you saw me running toward the bus as you were waiting for the light at Champion and East Main streets to change. I needed only about 20 more seconds to cross the street and hop on the bus, and you could've have been kind enough to do so, but no, you didn't. Then acted like you didn't see me as I waved and yelled your way. What a jerk....

This is a common, all-too-frequent occurrence for COTA riders. Would a 20-second delay really mess up your timetable that much dude? Gimme a break (and no, I don't aspire to be a bus-bound John Stossel, a "reporter" whom I find repellent and obnoxious).

Loop the Loop

In a previous blog entry, I discussed the god-forsaken Bus Stop to Nowhere on the No. 3 Northwest Boulevard line, and how a couple of minor amenities might help make the stop a safer, less depressing (and wet) experience for passengers.

I use that stop to go to the OSU Medical Center facility at 915 Olentangy Boulevard. It's a good quarter-mile jaunt, starting here:

Across Third Avenue is the first of three heavily used buildings, the Spielman Center, also part of OSU Medical, and the easiest to access by bus:

Our Filthy Bus Stops (an occasional series): Rider in the Storm at the Bus Stop to Nowhere

I often go to the OSU Medical Center's Eye and Ear Medicine facility at 931 Olentangy River Rd., which also houses the urology and dermatology practices as well. It's a good quarter-mile walk through hot parking lots from the East Third Street bus stop just west of Olentangy River Road that I call the Bus Stop to Nowhere.

It also gets an honorable mention as one of "Our Filthy Bus Stops." It's not so much a stop really as a dirt trench along the side of the road, with no shelter available, no nearby pedestrian walkway, assorted litter (plastic bottles and cigarette butts), and it's dangerously close to traffic. (I was going to take more detailed pictures of the trash at this stop, however, the monsoon in which I was standing at the time made me afraid that my camera would suffer water damage.)

The photo above is of the Westbound bus stop. As you can see, there is a well-worn path to the patch of ground marked by a sign that is supposed to be a bus stop, so I suspect that means quite a few people use this stop, including patients at the clinic. Nearby is a new strip mall with nouveau cuisine fast food restaurants that probably provide employment for many a No. 3 Northwest Blvd. rider. At the next stop on the line is the ginormous new Grandview Yards Giant Eagle store.

It seems to never fail to rain, snow, hail or sleet by the time I've finished my visit to the clinic, so I trudge through the elements for the Eastbound No. 3 bus stop just right across the street. Today was no different and I was caught in a downpour that lasted the entire time I had to stand and wait (about 13 minutes). I was soaked from head to foot, and the ground underneath me at the stop started to get spongy--good and muddy. I had the choice of two wonderfully welcoming manhole covers--which also double as seats on nice days--to stand on to avoid the encroaching mud.

Meanwhile, that picnic patio at the police station just behind looks like an inviting place to escape the downpour. Trouble is, if you're standing there, the bus won't see you, and will just barrel on by, leaving you to wait for the next one, which should come, oh, in about 30 minutes or so....

My suggestion to COTA (for what little it's worth): Please put a bona fide bus stop WITH a shelter at this and other stops along the No. 3 line. The burgeoning Grandview Yards area, which includes hundreds of units of new (market rate, natch) housing, will ensure that ridership on this line will increase--if you want it to. But you must first make waiting for the bus a pleasant waste of time instead of a chore in which one may be called upon to do battle with the elements. A couple of shelters, equipped benches and timetables, would be wonderful. Especially for those of us who might be needing to go to the doctor and not want to risk our lives and well-beings doing so.

Stay tuned. I'll discuss another aspect of the COTA commuters' dilemna in an upcoming post: Loop the Loop.

Big Butt Plastic Bag Seat Cover Sweat

Those who know me well know that I am conscientious when it comes to the environment. I try to keep water usage low, recycle as much as my trash as possible, try never to throw food away, and don't even throw cigarette butts on the ground (yeah, I know, but I've cut way down in recent months!).

AND, I ride the bus--for better or worse.

One of the most horrifying environmental disasters to me is the ugly Pacific Gyre, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that continent-sized swirling mass of trash and plastic floating in the middle of the Pacific. Much of the plastic junk and garbage finds its way into the ocean from local waterways that eventually flow into the sea. It's truly a sickening testament to man's wasteful, destructive ways. You can read more about this disgusting human legacy here: http://.

Some of the most heartbreaking images I've seen of the effects of the gyre on the ocean's wildlife are of dying albatrosses on the Galapagos Islands. The birds are dying because they have eaten small pieces of plastic which they have mistaken for the krill and small fish that comprise their diets. Their decomposing corpses offer a heinous glimpse into this problem; plastic chunks and pieces are often found entwined in the skeletons.



A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of taking a long, solitary walk along the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, N.Y. I saw massive amounts of plastic debris washed on shore, including the largest number of plastic bags I've ever seen in my 30 years of frequenting that beach.

Gyres exist in all of the oceans, and in large bodies of freshwater like the Great Lakes, including Ohio's Lake Erie, where the first-ever survey of plastic pollution in the lake found massive amounts of plastic garbage. www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/12/record_levels_of_plastic_pollu.html

(Note: For some reason, I haven't been able to reproduce links on this blog, so you'll have to enter the addresses yourselves--sorry!)

COTA is doing its part to ensure that our waterways continue to be fouled by plastic with the complimentary plastic shopping bags it inexplicably has on hand on all of its buses. Presumably, the bags are for riders to dispose of trash. However, they are more often used by passengers as seat covers.

I suspect those guilty of this reprehensible practice believe sitting on the bags will protect them from bedbugs and other vermin, or the leaking bodily fluids of other passengers. Well, bedbugs crawl and can easily evade being covered by a plastic bag, and it's just good bus rider practice to scan the seat before sitting down. But I've never seen any that were so bad they required seat covers.

All the bags really do is add to the trash found on COTA buses because they invariably end up on the floor, then are swept out the door as passengers come and go, and finally blow around the neighborhoods COTA serves. Since central Ohio is home to two major rivers, the Olentangy and the Scioto (which flows into the Ohio River) and numerous large creeks (some of which like the Little and Big Darby creeks, are federally protected), you can bet the bags end up in local waterways eventually. I've already seen them hanging from tree limbs.

This was the scene on a COTA bus recently. See for yourself:

Some PR whiz at COTA probably thought providing these plastic bags (emblazoned with the COTA logo) might be a nice way for the authority to show some customer appreciation (as opposed to taking real customer-friendly actions like making service improvements and keeping fares down). I've never seen ANYONE use them for anything BUT seat covers. The offending rider always leaves the bag there for someone else to throw on the floor (because, after all, who wants to sit on a plastic bag seat cover someone else has used?). I have to wonder how much these specially made bags costs the authority -- which probably hands the cost off to passengers, especially since COTA provides a stash both at the front and back doors of the bus!



The other day, while riding the Eastbound #2 to the Kroger store in Bexley, I noticed someone has simply grabbed the entire bundle of bags to use as a seat cover; I guess they needed that extra cushion that only a stack of plastic bags can provide. I picked up the bags and stuck them in the plastic-bag recycling bin at the front of the Kroger store, so disgusted was I by this selfish act.

California is banning plastic shopping bags and I'm all for a similar ban nationwide. But until that happens, COTA should end this ridiculous and wasteful practice, and get the bags off the bus!

I Heard It on COTA.... (an occasional series in which nuggets of wisdom heard on COTA are conveyed)

Setting: The back of the COTA bus on a recent weekday afternoon.

Characters: A group of four teen-something male skateboard types, most of them kind of droopy-eyed, like maybe they had some of the ganga before boarding, one of them asleep, another nodding off.

Guy #1 (to friend): May I have your attention? I need to have your attention! Hey, by the way, where are we going?

Guy #2 (not skipping a beat): It depends on what time we get there.

Guy #1: Oh.

Kind of sums up the whole COTA "experience"!

American Scratchitti

Just wondering: Why are so many bus windows so scratched up it looks like someone scrubbed them with a wire brush? I notice this especially on the No. 2 line.

The only good thing about it is that it forces me to read instead of gazing out the window as I ride. The downside of it is that these scratched up windows make it nearly impossible to figure out where you are, where you're going or view street signs and landmarks. At night, it looks like everything is shrouded in an impenetrable fog.... Even during the day, it appears as if we are traveling through Beijing on a day of deadly smog levels--you can't even make out street signs! Just another "convenience" COTA provides its riders, I suppose.

Marathon Madness!

If it's spring, it must be marathon time in Columbus, an often maddening time for COTA riders in which we haplessly experience delays, reroutes, and scrapped schedules.

In fact, it was an experience during the Columbus Marathon about four years ago that led to the creation of this blog. I absolutely HAD to go to the grocery store one Saturday. Big mistake! The trip back--about 25 blocks--took more than two hours as buses crawled by with "Next Bus Please" or "Not in Service" on their destination zippers--or simply didn't crawl by at all. I couldn't walk--I had bags of groceries. As usual, no one was forewarned; no notices were posted of the upcoming upheaval were posted on the bus in the days prior to the event.

Last Saturday was no different. The Capitol City Half-Marathon was held in the morning, and I boarded the No. 2 East Main Street to downtown, so I could make a transfer to my destination in Franklinton (South Grubb and Rich streets, where stops for the Nos. 3, 6, and 15 are located). I had a home-made potato salad in tow for a potluck being held at my spiritual place of refuge. It was my plan to change downtown for one of three afore-mentioned lines, but COTA had other plans.

The bus already was eight minutes late when I boarded, eliminating the possibility catching two of the transfers, but I could still catch the third in plenty of time. However, as we moved along Grant without making the turn onto State Street, and instead, headed to West Broad Street, I knew something was terribly amiss. It was then I noticed the massive traffic jams all over downtown, and buses going down streets they usually don't go down. We turned onto West Broad Street, apparently where the Broad and High transfer point had been relocated. I jumped off the bus, and saw a West Broad Street No. 10, and jaywalked and dodged traffic to catch it. It was pulling off but the driver kindly allowed me on.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"A marathon," she told me.

"I didn't know about this. Why weren't notices posted?" I asked.

"We've had notices all week," she said, despite the fact that none were posted anywhere on her bus. Nor did I see any at all during the week on any other bus I ride, and I ride at least two to four times a day.

The driver took us back down Grant, where we sat in traffic for about 15 minutes. A state trooper at the intersection of East Main and Grant stood around looking perplexed but I never him nor any other law enforcement officers directing traffic anywhere along the route she followed. As we headed back toward my neighborhood, I asked her what her route was going to be. After all, she was going east, the opposite direction that would take us to West Broad Street.

"I'm going to the freeway (Interstate 70), to the Rich and Town street exit), where I'll go over to West Broad," she told me.

To her credit, she was pretty calm considering.... I know bus-driving is an occupation in which high-blood pressure and a general nasty demeanor are occupational hazards. Riders also suffer the same afflictions.

"I've learned just to roll with it," she said.

Although my brain was beginning to roil, I took her example and sat down and buried myself in a magazine. I feared the worst because not only was traffic downtown deadlocked, but Interstate 71 north was closed for miles for major reconstruction; I suspected that I-70 was another parking lot. I figured I'd have to throw out my lovingly created potato salad because it would have become warm, increasing the possibility of salmonella poisoning. Fortunately, I-70 wasn't that bad, and I was able to get to where I was going, and the potato salad still had a healthy chill when I arrived. I just barely made lunch.

The usual 20-minute trip took a total of 1 hour, 5 minutes.

My question is why can't COTA adequately warn riders of these delays? I have only on rare occasions seen notices posted on the buses during huge events downtown that involve reroutes and delays. Never knew anything about Saturday's marathon until I enviously watched sweaty runners going where they needed to go as I sat on a bus stuck in traffic. It also would seem that the city and police department might be better prepared as well. Those who drove to the potluck also told of huge traffic jams and delays trying to get there.

While I am all in favor of people competing in marathons, especially if they are raising money for a good cause, the needs of us poor COTA-riding schlubs needs to be considered, too. We have lives: we have to work, go to the grocery, keep appointments. And since we don't drive, we have to factor in bus time for everything we do that involves trying to get somewhere. It often takes twice as long for us to do these things than it does for those with cars.

As the summer festival and outdoor event season begins in earnest, I'll be keeping a wary eye on COTA's performance, both in alerting us to upcoming delays and reroutes, and maintaining service with the least inconvenience possible.

By the way, the potato salad survived, and everyone loved it. As far as I know, no one got food poisoning.

Fan mail

Earlier this year, a reader who signed himself Public Transportation Driver, presumably a COTA employee as he addressed the system specifically, took issue with my October 2014 post "Of Bedbugs and COTA." In it, I expressed concerns about the possibility of catching the little critters while riding COTA buses. PTD wrote:

Bedbugs amongst other things may be found on public transportation. . But because it's just that PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION we need to keep it in mind that it's your choice to ride... even if COTA took the precautions to prevent them it want make to much of a difference considering the same pple have the right to ride just like you.... it saddens me to know that there are pple like you ridding around lurking &looking for something wrong ..yes there is a bedbug epidemic in Columbus not just in poverty stricken areas you can go to work n pick them up from your boss ...geeeessshhhh get a car or perhaps get a job with COTA as a coach cleaner and see how many buses stay clean with you on they team... creep

I was gratified to receive my first comment, even if I was called a creep! I did not respond to him personally, but since I've been moribund since I received it in March, I feel obliged to make it my first item of business to do so. Here goes: PTD says "bedbugs amongst (sic) other things may be found on public transportation because "it's just that PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION we need to keep it in mind that it's your choice to ride." Well, I don't think I want to know what "other things" might be found on public transportation--bedbugs and trash are enough. Maybe he knows something I don't. I do take issue with PTD's assertion that COTA riders have a choice. I can bet you that most COTA riders don't feel they have a choice. In fact, for many it is the only option to go to work, shop, visit relatives, or otherwise move around the sprawling megalopolis of Columbus. It's not a choice for us like it is for the giggly gaggles of OSU students who crowd the North High Street line--it's a necessity.

Remember PTD, we live in a city, and in cities, not everyone has the means or the ability to afford to have and maintain a car. Hence, the necessity of public transportation. And like so many these days, you appear to look down on things "public" with its socialistic connotations and the nightmare images of the great unwashed the term apparently conjures among many these days. In fact, the term "public" has become so pejorative that Columbus Public Schools last year officially changed its name to Columbus CITY Schools, presumably to mitigate the negative associations our current (right-leaning) political atmosphere has attached to it. Me, I still believe in contributing to the public good--which PTD, you do as a public bus driver, whether you acknowledge it or not!

Additionally, PTD (once I was able to decipher his somewhat fractured grammar) states I was singling out poor people and neighborhoods as the greatest source of bedbugs. Not true. I should have worded it differently and I didn't mean it the way you think. In fact, I pointed out that bedbugs are found in the fanciest, most exclusive neighborhoods "like Riverside Drive." I should have made the reference to New York City's Riverside Drive more explicit. New York's Riverside Drive winds up the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of Manhattan--some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. Columbus, too, has a Riverside Drive, which winds along the Scioto River through tony Upper Arlington. Trivia: For many years, local urban legend had it that legendary guitar god and sometime-Columbus resident Eric Clapton, who is married to a UA girl, had a mansion somewhere along the Scioto!

Then PTD tells me to "get a car" (not possible in my current financial state) or even better, "a job with COTA as a coach cleaner"! My only response to that is: What do they pay? All nit-picking (or is it bedbug-picking?) aside, I was pleased to receive a comment from a reader, and hope to receive more. Thanks, PTD! I salute you because your job is rough and I know you guys put up with a lot of crap from management, riders, and other (non-bus) drivers.

Cotacrimes.blogspot.com returns -- with a vengeance!

Nothing like a couple of unsavory experiences on the Central Ohio Transit Authority buses to get my dander rising, and get me back to the blog. Just a quick update:

-- We dodged a proposed fare increase that was skedded for Jan. 1 (my monthly pass would have gone from $62 to $69; individual fares would have risen from $2 to $2.25), and the CBus, the vanity coach that takes High Street, German Village, and Arena District revelers around those areas (and anyone else who needs to go there, but it's mostly ridden by partiers and hipsters) remains free, at least until May 3 (at this writing on May 2, it appears it will remain free for the time being).

-- Ugly new bus stops have been built downtown, and several downtown stops have been consolidated (in other words, closed). At least some of the new shelters have heat, and most actually have the line schedule posted, something I've been bitching about for years. The new shelters are part of a plan to spare tourists, out-of-towners and Statehouse bureaucrats the sight of motley groups of COTA riders who congregate downtown trying to make transfers. Ultimately, riders will be herded to side streets but this has not happened yet. Dayton did something similar, but built a fairly nice station for its riders, complete with electronic timetables that tell you how long you will wait for a bus to arrive. This is something I'd love to see in the COTA system. Still, in the far-flung reaches of the COTA empire, some bus stops are still only signs next to drainage ditches (I plan a photo series this year documenting the sorry state of many of our bus stops that I plan to title, Our Filthy Bus Stops).


Old-school COTA shelter



COTA shelter 2015


-- Some new coaches have been put into service, with smooth vinyl seats replacing the icky, fabric-covered ones of yore (see previous post: Of Bedbugs and COTA). I can't wait until all of the seats are changed so that passengers won't use the plastic grocery bags COTA inexplicably provides for customers to toss their trash into as plastic seat covers (I'll be addressing this in an upcoming entry). To its credit, COTA also has been putting hybrids into service, doing its part of cut down on the dangerous diesel pollution buses generate.

-- Still, many of the buses remain filthy (I blame riders for this mostly), and while on-time performance has improved, the system still can't handle large downtown events like today's Capitol City Half-Marathon, which caused sheer pandemonium and chaos for the system (see subsequent entry: Marathon Madness!). Drivers have generally been friendlier, at least to me, but many still can't tell you where and for what bus you can make transfers. Also, timetables are not aligned well enough to effect transfers; I can't tell you how many times I've approached the Hamilton Road/East Main Street intersection hoping to catch my transfer, only to see it pull away as I watched helplessly from the bus as it approached the intersection. Surely COTA planners could alleviate this. And drivers SIMPLY REFUSE to wait for approaching buses to allow riders to make transfers.

-- I don't know how many folks actually read this--I have almost 1,000 "views", probably about 500 are my own--but I did receive my first piece of fan mail, which I will address in the next entry.