10.30.07
Morning Driver new to route
Morning
The driver said he was new to the route when I asked why we weren’t moving. I had to ask if I had somehow missed my usual bus and caught the very last one because the driver was farting around wasting time for who knew what reason. He responded that the bus was to leave at 6:45. I corrected that the 2nd-to-last bus was to depart at 6:40. He then recognized that he had been looking at the wrong part of the display and was new to the route. The newness really showed as we came off the freeway at 600 South and he failed to turn left at 400 West. Instead, he took us East to State before turning north. Trying to make the best of it, I got off at 300 S. State and made the extra distance. It was a bit of a pain but I could use the edxcercise. It is days like today that I am glad to have brought my bike along. The bike helped me make short work of an otherwise awkward bus experience.
Afternoon
2nd to the last bus was LATE once again. This time by 9 minutes. Traffic was cooperative on the freeway and the driver was able to make up all the time but one (1) minute. And by the time we made it to 7800 South we were one (1) minute ahead of schudule! You have to appreciate the disclaimer on the UTA schedules. It reads, ‘Timepoints are approximate and may vary due to road and traffic conditions.” They should probably append to that, “and driver inexperience, GPS difficulties, leaving the station on time, etc.”
10.28.07
Schedules
Looking at the schedule, paper or online, if one knows the stops along a certain route, one will notice that not all the stops are listed. While this may be a space limitation issue on the paper schedules, I don’t see why the UTA can’t list ALL available stops on the web version. For regular riders on a particular route, the ambiguity can be handled, but first-time riders trying to determine which bus to take and how close they can get to a particular spot will likely be unable to make the “right” decision because of omitted information. Trying to read into the schedule using the map doesn’t work because only the ROUTE can be seen and not the stops along it, at least for my fast-bus route. There are only two options of know of to find out the real stops for fast and express buses: Call the UTA operators, drive the mapped route from the schedule and look at each busstop signpost to see if the bus number you seek is listed (because the fast bus doesn’t stop at EVERY busstop along the way)
I believe the UTA would benefit by increased ridership if they would make the *real* schedule available to the public.
10.20.07
Tokens!
I don’t ride quite every day so I don’t purchase a pass. My employer will buy me either a monthly transit pass or a parking pass to the Gateway (where I work). My schedule is just unreliable enough that I take the offered parking pass and pay for each bus trip I make with cash. Let me say that $1.60 is a very inconvenient amount to carry around. And then sometimes I spend the change on a snack or something, forgetting my bus fare obligation. Enter the token. The token is an easy way to carry around a convenient, 1 coin, non-spendable fare. I like the token. It only makes sense to purchase the token in bulk so that I do not have to carry around $1.60 to exchange for it before every transit ride. Besides, there are precious few stops where they can be purchased. If you purchase them at one of the handful of Trax stops that dispense them, you must take your chance that the machine is stocked and that it has change for you. Looking for the address of the downtown SLC UTA office so I could more conveniently buy tokens and get correct change, I searched the www.utabus.com website and learned that I can purchase tokens at many grocery store service counters around the valley. Now this is convenient! Not only easy to get some at my local grocery in South Jordan, but they are for sale in quantities of 10! Only $14.25 for the complete set of ten.
UTA GPS
I was wondering why the UTA didn’t give GPS units to all buses to aid the drivers (especially new ones or new to the route in question) when I just learned that the LCD display screen in front of the driver is just that! It not only communicates where the driver is to turn with written directions (sorry, fellas, no map display) but also has the current time and countdown till the next stop. In addition, it communicates back to the head office the bus’ current position. So why can’t the drivers be on-time? Outside of unavoidable traffic issues, taking too long at stops, a bad attitude, or just plain negligence, I DON’T KNOW!
Earlier in the year when waiting for a bus that was 10 minutes late and trying decide a corrective course of action (Trax or call my wife) I phoned the UTA on their publicly posted number (the digits for ride-uta), the call-taker couldn’t seem to tell me anything about the bus except, “It should be there by now.” So if this positional data is indeed being tracked at the head bus station, it must not be available to the call operators which is a real shame. With a little technology boost, the public could have access to this information on their phones and other wireless devices to help them breathe easy. Since buses are NOT reliably on time, this could be a big boon to all wireless connected travelers.
10.13.07
Previous UTA commuting experience
I had another gig in the downtown SLC area from November 2006 until mid-August of 2007 and used the bus for much of that time. I had some great and not-so-great experiences along the journey and thought that I might share those.
I remember the first day I took the bus. My anxiety was intense while waiting at the stop. I arrived early so I would be sure to catch the bus. I triple checked the change in my pocket and looked at my watch several times. I looked up at the sign at the bus stop again to be sure I was at the right place. Finally a bus comes around the corner and I breathed a sigh of relief.
