Thursday, September 9, 2010

Transit Pain: A Tale of Two Canes

Buy one for your hot stepmom
I know I'm supposed to be doing PAX coverage (it's coming, I swear) but BART strikes again! I'm waiting for the EmeryGoRound and a rather cranky looking older lady wobbles up in a cane taking a station directly in front of the 3 of us already in line. No big deal I thought, I usually let the older people go in front of me anyway so I'm in position in case one of them falls. Having caught an old lady in the past falling out of an airport shuttle van I'm speaking from experience. She hobbled her way on with me behind her like an MLB catcher yet she competently made her way to the first seat and what should I see?

Another cantankerous old lady with a cane! 

The alarm bells went off in my head immediately and for good reason. She had been riding that bus for the last 5 stops whining to the driver that she thought it went to Amtrak despite the shuttle clearly stating WATERGATE EXPRESS on the side. Not Amtrak Express, not Amtrak Line and the the fact that the maps clearly show this route being literally the only one that does not go anywhere near the Amtrak. The fed up driver finally relented and said he would drop her off at the Amtrak but next time to "Take any EmeryGoRound shuttle except for this one and maybe ask for confirmation next time."

Normally I would be supportive of this decision on the driver's part. I love it when people go above and beyond and provide great service when it's not required however both earned my enmity when I quickly realized that he intended to take her to the Amtrak immediately!

There was a bunch of us on the shuttle that did our research and know what's going on but now our schedules are thrown to hell because she couldn't be bothered to look at the schedule and map at every station. The next scheduled stop was at MacArthur BART which is a hub for every bus and shuttle. She could have just waited for the next stop, got off and got onto the Powell which goes directly to the Amtrak's door! I'm all for the great service from the bus driver but do the 10 of us that were on the ball have to wait for it? Our schedule is tight and sure enough we missed the BART and had to wait another 20 minutes for the next one.

In the grand scheme of things it's only 25 minutes of my life wasted but that's not the point. Why does the loudest, most incompetent amongst us have to be catered to at the expense of the rest of us with our stuff together? We need to start enforcing consequences for actions or inactions.

In a previous post a brave commenter that goes by the name of 'anonymous' tried to call me out on not asking the jerk that was taking up 4 seats to move his ass. I chose inaction for various reasons (He was bigger, stronger and younger with a bad attitude among the reasons. Not the kind of guy a father of one should mess with) and the consequence of my inaction is: I didn't get a seat. Inaction = Consequence just like Action=Consequence.

The inaction of this passenger not looking at the map provided at the stop, not asking the driver before boarding if she was on the right shuttle and not waiting to go to the transfer hub should be her having to wait until the regular round is done and then take advantage of the bus driver's generosity and get her ride to Amtrak. If he made that offer to me I'd insist he finish the route first and then go out of his way instead of making 10 people lose a collective 250 minutes of their lives.

This speaks to a bigger problem of our inability to care about others. The me-centric society is crossing generational gaps and getting out of control. I'm just asking for a little courtesy. Is that so much to ask.

Will be on her lawn. Depressing image source.
When I finally arrived at MacArthur with my now late crew of fellow passengers the first wobbly old lady tried to cut me off so she could be first off the shuttle and hold the rest of us up so I did the only sensible thing in that situation. I checked her into the boards so the rest of us could hustle out and try to catch the train in time. We failed to catch the train but maybe next time the first cane lady will remember before trying to make the rest of us even later.

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