Shout Out to my bus!

In the DC area, many people seem to have a schizophrenic relationship with our public transportation. Most people I know would take a subway without giving it a second thought, but those same people are "bus snobs" and would not consider taking a bus. Don't know why that is, but that's the way it is.

I, too, was a bus snob. But then about 4 yrs ago, I took a job working downtown, so I knew I'd be commuting by Metro everyday. Instead of driving to the subway station, I decided to take the bus. It would save me money every day, as well as wear and tear on the car, and really wouldn't cost me anything in time. And boy am I glad I did!!

I've made some great friends. Most of the time on public transportation, everyone is in their own little zone and there's not a lot of interaction. Not on my bus! A core group of us got to know one another & regularly get together to go out to dinner. When our bus was threatened with being discontinued due to budget cuts, we banded together to fight it (and won!). As a result, more regular riders were brought into the fold, and our dinner group has now expanded.

I also have to give a shout out to the bus drivers. They are a really nice group of people who regularly go above and beyond. The bus stop happens to be on my property line, but on the other side of my yard from my driveway. It's not far to walk & as a result, I've often reached my driveway before the bus has pulled back into traffic. Thus, the drivers have realized that that is my house. I've noticed that any time it's raining or if I'm carrying a lot of stuff, the drivers seem to overshoot the bus stop, which just happens to mean that they drop me right at my driveway. Coincidence? I think not!