Bus Passes Stick to Everything

At two dollars, Day Passes are cheaper than catching the Taxi, Lyft, or Uber, and if you are riding on one route, they are pretty darn convenient.  You step into the bus, pay your two dollars, and the machine pumps out a card with a big date stamp that allows you ride any bus for a certain period of time.

Yet, you slip it into your pocket and if, you're like me, the bus pass will stick to your wallet, your phone, your handkerchief and if you don't pay attention, you'll end up, like me, leaving it at the bar or coffeeshop or restaurant where you last were.  You don't even notice that it stuck to the bottom of your phone, just hung out attached to something that you pulled out of your pocket.

So, word to the wise, make sure you know where that Day Pass is before you board the bus.  It'll be a pain in the ass to break a five dollar bill for a trip you already paid for.

Bus Chronicles

I'm thrilled Don has invited me to be a guest contributor to this blog. I'm a daily Westside rider of the ABQ transit system, and aside from the financial and environmental benefits, interacting with fellow Burqueños is my favorite thing about public transportation. Periodically, I'll be posting Bus Chronicles, which highlights fun, interesting, and sometimes bizarre experiences on the various routes I take throughout the city. Enjoy.

An Albuquerque Love Story in One Act

(A woman climbs aboard the #50 talking away on her bluetooth headset.)

"Yeah, Shannon made it official"
"[...]"
"I know, 2 ½ years, right?"
"[...]"
"He came into the bedroom and told me if I was down to go to jail with him, I was down to live with him."
"[...]"
"Yeah"
"[...]"
"Yeah, then he handed me the lease and my name was right there on it next to his."
"[...]"
"I know! I asked him how he got all that stuff, my social and stuff..."
"[...]"
"I don’t know, but it was the best sex of our lives."

FIN

Epilogue: As I stepped off the bus, I heard her say, "I don't care if he's the daddy or not. If you sign that birth certificate, you're responsible."

Normalizing Bus Travel

With the slew of bad news regarding the Albuquereque Rapid Transit, I thought rather than just shake my head (SMH) and walk away from what I see as an important step in reviving Central Avenue as well as reaffirming my philosophical support of mass transit that I should start taking the regular buses more frequently.

This is not to say that I am embarking on some sort "Nickel and Dimed" project because in reality Mindy and I only have one car, so on many occasions if I want to go get a drink, eat dinner I have to walk or ride my bike.  In many cases that means I'm usually eating at the same places.

And frankly, I'm kind of bored with the food in my 'hood.  So why not combine my very practical need for food with riding the bus?  Too often, the complaints about the bus center around "disgust" of riding in a dirty bus and coded racist/classist language directed at the people who have to use the bus.  And I want to do my part to change that.

So, over the past couple of weeks I've been trying to navigate the bus system to do what I want.  And I thought I'd share some of the things I've learned.

First, the ABQ Ride App is not that good.  I'm not an App creator but there's no real way that I've found to figure out where the next bus is (especially on a Google Pixel screen).  Maybe this could be fixed if they optimized it for smaller screens?

Second, the schedules aren't optimized either so you have to enlarge to get the times (which don't seem correct in practice) and then have to scroll down and back up to match the station with the time.

Third, there are at least three buses that go up and down Central (66, 766, and 777), so figure out where the stops are for all three and if you are going to the Launchpad for a show or going to O'Neills for some good Fish & Chips or justing wanting to go to Nob Hill for a local beer at Tractor you can get there pretty darn quick and for much cheaper ($2.00 for a day pass) than taking an Uber or Lyft (though admittedly those services come in handy when you try to get back home after the buses stop running).

Riding the bus means I don't worry about parking, don't have to worry about if I've had one too many, nor have to engage with every random stranger who wants food or money or worry about whether people "see" me on my bike.

So, give it a try, and let me know what your experience was like.