Coca Cola, Starbucks, Dasani: Drinks of Choice on #WMATA Buses

Coca Cola, Starbucks and Dasani water were the drinks of choice by passengers on the G2 metrobus coming home one evening recently. The morning's bus passengers enjoyed iced coffees, water and one rather foul-looking green grassy looking liquid (something very healthful no doubt). These passengers get on the bus openly carrying their big girl sippy cups and enjoy their rides sucking down their drinks of choice. Several of them are regulars (the lass carrying the green-filled glass, for instance, gets on the bus each day with this breakfast drink) and most of them look like they are quite literate -- as in able to read the sign at the front of the bus that says "no food or drinks."  When I see these beverages passing by me I tend to lean away and desperately hope the passenger with the soupy, sugary slurpee doesn't drip it or drop it near me as the bus lurches its way through construction, potholes and sudden stops brought on by those idiots who insist on turning right from the left lane passing across the front of the bus at various intersections. You know when it happens as the bus driver gasps or cusses or otherwise expresses indignation at being put in such a spot.  But rarely, actually never, do I see a bus driver say to the passenger with the drink "don't get on" or "throw it away" or "put it away."   Does the bus driver expect other passengers to admonish these scoff laws?  Am I supposed to bare the glare of youth who think they are entitled to a cold drink on the bus the same way they got a nice sippy cold cup from mum in the family mobile when she picked them up from school? Just what is this expectation that one can eat and drink at will on a public bus?  Is that what freedom means?  Due to this laxity in the regulations, the lovely cloth-covered seats in the newer buses are getting stained with the remains of either these drinks or food or snacks.  More and more often I pass by a seat with something suspicious-looking on the seat and try and find another spot.  I expect I'll end up being a real little old lady and having to bring a little cloth with me to sit on so my work clothes don't get all dirtied up. Really, when are the bus drivers going to start acting like the authority figures they want us to be when an emergency occurs.  It is hard to respect them now when they can't even enforce this simple law. Do they really think anyone will listen when they really try to take control of the bus in some sort of emergency situation?

WMATA G8 Bus Route Gets Ever More Crowded

Sitting on the bus the other day jammed in and watching how it kept getting more and more crowded with strap hangers, so many that the driver had to pass by people at several stops, who looked a bit on the angry side, naturally, as it was Monday morning and who wants to miss the bus and be late on a Monday morning? And it's not as if another bus comes right away.

DC Metrobus G8 Kept Me Waiting in the Cold Too Long!

Twenty-five minutes is too long to wait for a bus on a cold Monday morning! After waiting for about ten minutes in the freezing windy cold at 8:50 am on Rhode Island Avenue along came a bus!  However, it zoomed right past with the driver apparently unable to tell the standing passengers to "move back" so he could say he had no room for the six of us waiting.  So he didn't stop. You'd think another bus would come along within a few minutes? Nope. It was another fifteen minutes later before a bus arrived for us poor freezing passengers. And the driver had draped a jacket over the Coin/Smart Trip fare machine as apparently that wasn't working well either. Or were we given a free fare as we'd waited so long for the bus?  How can DC Metrobus keep on not running enough buses to pick up passengers on time IN THE MORNING?  It wasn't raining. It wasn't snowing. The traffic wasn't even heavy. It's not like this isn't a busy route as there's usually at least half a dozen passengers at this G8 stop every day and the bus fills up. And why the no-fare or broken fare machine?  On reflection, at least once a week I get on a bus and the fare machine is broken or not working or the driver just waves us past. How can WMATA make any money this way?  Just what is going on?

When It Rains, Bus Driver Shines

On a recent rainy day on the way to work on the bus, at one stop the Metrobus driver was about to pull away from the kerb when a passenger called out "somebody left an umbrella," and another passenger called out "it was the guy who just got off with the pony tail."  So the bus driver tooted the bus horn several times to get the attention of the guy with the long grey ponytail who was walking briskly away from the bus, sans brolly.  The guy didn't turn around so the driver pulled up behind him as he was now in the intersection as it was a red light for the bus.  The driver pulled down his window and called out "hey, you, ponytail, you left your umbrella!" and this time the guy heard him and stopped in front of the bus right in the middle of the intersection.  The driver turned towards the passengers in the back of the bus who had called out and said, "Quick, get me the umbrella" and one of them grabbed it and ran and handed it to the driver who then passed it out the window to the man with the long grey pony tail who smiled and said "thank you very much."  You just never know when something good might happen on the bus!