Just Folks

It's about 4:40 PM and all we want is to get home.
This bus is always full.

After work, a lot of my co-workers and I make a dash for the bus home.

It is virtually always packed with people, standing room only.

If we happen to miss the bus, we have to wait about forty minutes

 for the next one going downtown. A lot of us, including myself,

have to make a connection downtown to the bus that

will take us the rest of the way to our homes. 

If we miss that connection, it can be as long as an hour 

before the next bus is scheduled to arrive.

When I ride the bus to work in the morning,

the other passengers are usually all workers for downtown

businesses or students.  We are all alike in that

we are just wanting to get to our jobs so that we can

put food in our kids' bellies, clothes on our backs and

a roof over our heads -- as do the people who

drive to work. I will be the first to admit that a great

many of the people I see at the downtown bus stops are

less than reputable, but that problem would remedy itself,

as would problems with scheduling, if more 

of the office workers left their cars at home.

To say that the city government has no regard or respect

for commuters who use the bus system would

be putting it politely at best. Consequently, the Indygo bus system

is the "red-headed step-child" of the city/county government.

They all seem to have forgotten that the people who clean 

the offices where they work, who serve them in the restaurants

and cook the food, who file the paperwork, who park the cars, 

who make the beds in the hotels that host the city's sports events 

and conventions -- all of them are likely minimum 

wage workers who also take the bus to their jobs.

If they could not get to work, then business would

likely come to a halt. When was the last time

a CEO bused his own table, emptied his own waste basket

or unclogged his own toilet? 

From time to time, plans are floated to the public about

prospective urban rail systems, but so far its only

lip service; somebody, somewhere, is making too much money

from the parking garages, as well as the new meters that have been installed

by an outside vendor, which splits the proceeds with the city/county

government. Obviously, an improved bus system that actually

is well-scheduled, well-run and that works for

the commuter would be a threat to the sweet amount 

of pocket change received in parking fees.