Category: default || By jt3y

I try to take the bus to and from work as often as possible, because we don't have free parking at our office. As I've mentioned before, I need to take two buses; one out of Picksberg to a point midway between Picksberg and Our Fair City, and then another from the midway point to my home in the Mon-Yough metroplex.

This map, drawn by the Tube City Online Multimedia Dept., will serve to illustrate:



(not to scale)

All together, this trip takes a little more than a hour, including the transfer at the midway point, which is alongside a state highway. The second bus only runs every 40 minutes or so, and if I take the first bus too early, I have a long layover; if I miss my first bus, I get home up to two hours later. It's not a lot of fun, and I question how much money I'm really saving.

A week or so ago, my regular bus driver suggested I try a different combination that, he assured me, would get me home faster.

So the other night, when the first part of the combination that the driver had mentioned came before my regular bus, I decided to try it instead.

I can now say, conclusively, that there are whole areas of the Mon Valley that I've never, ever seen before. At least before that night. Here's how the new route went:



(not to scale)

We passed the same video rental store twice. The third time we approached that same intersection again, I moved toward the front of the bus, having decided that I was going to get off, call a cab, and go home that way. I felt a little like "Charlie on the MTA" in the old song by the Kingston Trio, and I'm not sure, but I think we slipped through a wormhole in space at one point. I also saw Mr. Peabody and Sherman fly past the windows with a WABAC machine.

Just at that moment, the bus veered sharply to the left, and soon I was back on a familiar road that I knew was close to home. Good thing, too, because I can't imagine how much worse turning myself over to the vagaries of Yellow Cab would have been. But I wasn't in my right mind by then. By the time the bus made it to the transfer point, I had a headache from carbon monoxide fumes, a stomachache from the constant twists and turns, and a nervous twitch from watching the guy across the aisle rocking back and forth, talking to himself.

Oh, wait a minute; that was my reflection in the bus window that I was watching.

When I finally got home, I knelt down and kissed the berber in the front hallway, before offering a prayer thanking God for delivering me safely from the clutches of the Port Authority. But by crackey, the doggone thing did get me home about 15 minutes sooner.

Anyway, yesterday morning, I saw my regular bus driver again. "I tried that bus you suggested," I said.

"How was it?"

"Well, I'll admit I got home faster," I said, "but, boy, what a cockeyed tour of Pittsburgh you get. I was in neighborhoods where I didn't even realize there were neighborhoods."

He just smiled. "If you don't mind walking a little bit, you may want to try that flyer up ahead," he said, nodding toward another bus that was taking on passengers a few carlengths ahead of ours. "After work, you walk down to the place where the Gulf station used to be, and it'll take you right up here to the avenue, all on one bus."

When I got to the office, I looked up that flyer. At each end of the bus route, I'd have about a mile-long walk to and from the nearest stop. On the leg near my house, most of that walk would be on a busy state highway.

A friend is convinced that I must be giving the bus a bad name, and that the driver's trying to get rid of me. At first, I thought he was crazy, but he's starting to make some sense.

Either that, or all of the diesel fumes are finally getting to me.

...

Depending on whether Fast Eddie and his staff are able to funnel some highway-building money to Port Authority and the Commonwealth's other transit agencies, missing my bus connection may be the least of my problems soon, according to Joe Grata in the Post-Gazette.

The state Legislature has refused any sort of additional aid to transit before they adjourn for the year. At least Rendell laid down the law, saying he would veto any attempt by legislators to vote themselves a pay raise, according to Brad Bumsted in the Trib. But they also got into a spitting match over three people who Rendell wanted to appoint to Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, and in the end, no one was appointed.

They say people get the kind of government they deserve. What, oh what, did Pennsyltucky ever do to deserve this, oh Lord?

...

P.S. I stole the bus photo from the Antique Motor Coach Association of Pennsylvania Web site, which is well worth a look. "Pa Pitt" is from one of Cy Hungerford's old cartoons for the P-G, via the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Web site.