(no subject)

Commuting

I'm having an entitled moment. Wherein I whine and complain because I want to be entitled to something better than what I'm getting with regards to the new PART schedule for my county.

See, PART is the fancy schmancy bus system for the area around Greensboro, NC. Tis way fancy schmancy in that it's not Greensboro public transit (which sucks). It's for business people coming in to Greensboro. It has fewer stops and specific destinations.

Well, PART hasn't been going from Asheboro (where I live) to Greensboro. Until next Monday. Woohoo! Exciting, right? A chance to save gas! A chance to help the environment! Well, all of that is true, except the brainiacs in charge of the thing have managed to create a convoluted and annoying schedule. (Which may just be annoying to me, depending upon survey respondents. But still. Part of it is really stupid.)

The schedule (which is linked above) starts at McDowell St. Then it stops and the local community college. Um, folks...the community college is ON MCDOWELL ST. Why the freaking HELL would you schedule two stops within 2 minutes a few hundred yards of one another? (2 stops out of 4 total in the town.)

Then it stops at the hospital. That's centrally located, so it's smart. (Never mind that I'm going to have to email and say "Where at the hospital will it be going?" as they didn't specify where.) THEN they go to a shopping center North of town. (Greensboro is North of Asheboro, so again, logical.) Quite honestly, the town isn't that big. Yeah, it's 24,000 people, and there may be people coming in from outside Asheboro to ride, but seriously. This is the south. Commuting isn't that big. There is no way they need more than three stops total. (And let me just tell you, if I arrive at the third stop and the freaking bus is full? I'd be really, really pissed. It's doubtful, but I'd be pissed.)

THEN the bus stops in Randleman. One stop. Just one. At Wal-Mart. It's the most freaking logical stop of any. It's right on the highway and centrally located in Randleman. No problems with that one.

But then. Oh, then. We get to Greensboro and guess where they stop first...a random intersection just going in to Greensboro. The only thing at that intersection is a law office. I'm not kidding you. We're going to be stopping for LAWYERS. (They make way more money than me, hence part of my ire.)

Then we stop at UNCG. Which is at downtown Greensboro. The next stop, logically, would be the downtown depot. As we're downtown. But no! The next stop is the Women's Hospital! Then Wesley Long Hospital! Then Moses Cone Hospital! Essentially, we stop near to my work, but not near enough to walk, then circle WAY around the city and end up at my stop last. My stop which is a block from my work. (If only the UNCG one wasn't more than a mile away. I'd end up smelling by the time I got to work. Oh, and if I got on the later bus it would get me to UNCG too late to make the walk to work. No win either way.)

So essentially, while I was prepared for the compromise of getting to work before 8 (since most offices don't start work at 8:30), I wasn't prepared for the notion of having to be on the freaking bus by 6:49 just to get to work by 8.

It's not fair! (We'll ignore the logic of all the hospital and UNCG workers probably outnumber the downtown workers. I still protest the lawyers, though.)

The funny part - I'll still be doing it. I'm just going to whine a bit and try to figure out how to be on the bus the least.