Public transportation lands the first punch!

So, I've been doing the bus thing for work for a little over a week now. It's really been an overall pleasant experience. I like being able to just sit back, relax, and read, and get dropped off right next to my building in the morning. I don't have a particularly long commute, but driving into the Harrisburg can still be pretty annoying at times, even at 6:45 am, and I like that I no longer have to deal with that stress. I just drive into New Cumberland, park on a side street, wait a few minutes, hop on the bus, and then 15 minutes or so later, I'm at work. And then I reverse the process in the afternoon. Overall, commuting probably takes me an extra 20-25 minutes this way. However, were I not doing the bus, I'd probably be spending at least 10-15 of those minutes walking from my parking lot to my office, and besides, I don't really see that time as lost, since I'm generally doing some reading that I'd be doing in the evening at home anyhow. I would be rethinking my views on mass transit, if I had anything against mass transit, which I don't. I have something against the fact that my money currently funds mass transit in Pittsburgh (which I have never used) and in Philly (which I recall maybe using once). And it was funding mass transit in Harrisburg long before I ever actually bought a bus pass.

Today, however, I had my first negative bus experience. As you either know, or at least assume, buses run on a schedule. Or at least they are supposed to. It's how the system works. The bus from downtown Harrisburg to New Cumberland runs about 6 times in the afternoon, between 2:30 and 5:30. That means there's generally about 35-40 minutes in between buses, which makes it rather important that you don't miss your bus. Being fully aware of that fact, I made a point of being VERY early to the bus stop coming home for the first several days, and of noting when the bus actually came. The Capitol Complex, where I work, is in between the first two time checks on the route. The bus literature advises you to be at the stop 5 minutes before the bus is supposed to arrive at your stop. Now, most stops are not listed as time checks, so there isn't necessarily a published schedule of when the bus is supposed to be at your particular stop. However, the first two time checks are 10 minutes apart, and my stop is pretty much right in the middle of them, so I figured it would just make sense for me to be at my stop at the time when the bus is supposed to be leaving the beginning of the route. And that is what I did for the first week, and, at the earliest, I was picked up maybe 3 or 4 minutes after the published time for the first time check.

So this week, while I certainly still made it a point to be down at the stop at 3:25, which is the published time for the first time check on the trip I want to catch, I also made a point not to be there much before that anymore, because I was just going to increase my waiting time. With today being a cold, wet, ugly day, I especially was not in any hurry. All of that being said, my cell phone read 3:24 when I got to the stop, or in other words, still one minute before the route was supposed to start a good mile or so away, and at least 5 minutes earlier than the bus had ever been there before. So I waited. Then I saw the bus that usually comes right before my bus. And then I waited some more. And then I saw a bus I had never seen before, which got me a bit concerned, but not too much so because I had been picked up later than this before. So I waited. And then I saw a couple more buses that I'd never seen before, and I was now pretty irritated, because it was very late and either the bus was unacceptably late, or it had been very early and I had missed it. About 10 minutes later I conceded defeat, went back into my building, went to the bathroom, and then returned at about 4:00 to wait for the next bus, which is scheduled to be at the beginning of the route at 4:10. This bus was running normally, and I got picked up around 4:15, after wasting a good 40 minutes of my day.

You know, I understand that a bus schedule is never going to be perfect, traffic is just too variable an entity for that, but this sort of thing does really bother me. Most people who know me know that I'm prompt almost to a fault, if that's possible. This isn't to say that I'll never miss a bus, but I'll never do so because of pure negligence. It would be a little easier to stomach if my stop was further along the route, but it's not, and I have a hard time understanding how you're doing a pickup at a spot that's 5 minutes or more into your route before the route is even supposed to begin. Anyhow, I've learned my lesson, and I'll be there at 3:20 from now on, only to never again have the bus show up much before 3:30.