Wednesday, June 18, 2014

On the Bus: Daily Folk


The word "commuters" conjures up images of big city folk 
who come to work each morning, brief case in hand, 
crisp white shirt and tie with their business suits,
 or women wearing neatly polished pumps 
with a conservative dress.

In this town, they'll drive an SUV to one of the local 
 parking garages, where the vehicle will stand
all day, costing their owners fuel, fees, upkeep,
insurance, monthly payments, blah-blah-blah --
while the owner spends eight to twelve hours working
to earn all that money to have this "convenience."
The people who take the buses here are generally
politely referred to as the "working poor."

As shown in the above picture, they are a carpenter
and a healthcare worker, accompanied by a number of
wait staff and cooks, hotel workers, and maintenance staff
for offices in the area. Now, the business world
can do without the presence of an attorney
or file clerk for a day or so, but if the maintenance staff,
the hotel maids, the janitors, and the healthcare
workers could not get to their jobs, the workday 
would come to a complete standstill.
Yet we still have a public transportation
system that is woefully inadequate
to meet the needs of a place
that likes to promote itself as a 
"world class city."



1 comment:

William Kendall said...

Public transit can be inadequate here as well. It seems there's an aversion to things like keeping up infrastructure by even the slightest raising of taxes.