The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...

When I got home from work last night there was a message on the voice mail from Miami-Dade Transit. They were responding to a call I made a month ago (after the driver drove up onto the curb and popped the tire... yep, that day) lodging a complaint for various problems with the bus route I take every day. I let them know that sometimes the bus just doesn't come. Sometimes it takes 2 hours to get a bus, even on days when traffic is light. Sometimes the drivers are bigoted asshats. Sometimes the drivers ignore the "stop requested" button (happened again this morning and boy, oh boy, was the guy who had to walk back 5 blocks pissed off). Sometimes drivers don't go into an office park like they should simply because they don't feel like it - usually there are 2 or 3 stops back in those parks, so you know there are a lot of irritated mass transit riders when that happens. Basically, there are all sorts of issues with this particular route and I let them know that there were quite a few passengers looking into other forms of transportation because we were sick of dealing with the problems week after week. We really don't have any other option, but at least the possibility got put out there.

The woman who left the message very pleasantly let me know that a supervisor would be making spot checks on the route and hopefully any issues with drivers will be cleared up. I hope so, too. It would have been nice if they had responded sooner. A month is a little long for my taste, but at least I got a response at all.

I think things might be shifting slightly to a more tolerant slant in my neighborhood. Good things have been happening. The bus people called me back. Last week I said hello to 2 people on my way home and both of them said hello back. Little things give me hope that maybe things are getting better. Getting better just in time for the man and me to leave. Then again, last night on the way home a guy rode past me on a bike (white guy, looked pretty haggard) and said to me with a thick New York accent, "Hey, honey, you lawst?" "Thanks, no, I live here." "Oh, uh, well... OK then, have a good one." Funny thing is - I was only a block away from my house. I guess I still look out of place.