PAT bus stories (Pittsburgh, Homestead, Oakland: sex offender, homes, universities)

[Herodotus]

This makes me think of one of the many reasons why people are not as neighborly as they were many years ago. Up until the 1950's, and the explosion of suburbia, most people lived in the cities, and took the bus or streetcar to get around. As regular riders, you would become familiar with most of the people in your area, chatting with them at the car stop, and on the streetcar itself. Thus, not many people in your neighborhood would be a stranger to you. One of the results of this, is that people knew who your kids were, and felt free to put them in their place if they were seen misbehaving. The parents had no problem with this, as they usually knew who the other adult was. Today, people live farther apart, they come out and jump right in their cars, there are few neighborhood shopping strips where you can run into your neighbor, and where the summer's heat used to drive everyone out into the street, where they would mingle, now it drives everyone into the house where the AC is.

[ebyrnes]

Now that is funny...I was on the 16 for the first time in a while today! I love PAT busses - never have had a problem, while Philly busses can be downright frightening although their regional rail is fantastic - but it is annoying when someone decides to jam up the front door by hanging out there to talk to the driver. I, too, am looking forward to the refillable cards; since I am an infrequent user, I keep a stash of tickets and they get pretty beat up.

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Originally Posted by PB&J O'Rourke

Go for it.

I'm up on the North Side, I think it was bus line... 16, maybe, that I rode, in case anyone cared.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

This makes me think of one of the many reasons why people are not as neighborly as they were many years ago. Up until the 1950's, and the explosion of suburbia, most people lived in the cities, and took the bus or streetcar to get around. As regular riders, you would become familiar with most of the people in your area, chatting with them at the car stop, and on the streetcar itself. Thus, not many people in your neighborhood would be a stranger to you. One of the results of this, is that people knew who your kids were, and felt free to put them in their place if they were seen misbehaving. The parents had no problem with this, as they usually knew who the other adult was. Today, people live farther apart, they come out and jump right in their cars, there are few neighborhood shopping strips where you can run into your neighbor, and where the summer's heat used to drive everyone out into the street, where they would mingle, now it drives everyone into the house where the AC is.

We also were thinner as a result of having to walk everywhere. I grew up in a city taking buses and walking to school, work, shopping. Even if you owned a car you rarely used it because parking was so difficult. People didn't belong to gyms; they got plenty of exercise during their daily lives because it wasn't convenient to drive everywhere like it is now when most people live in suburbs. It is almost impossible to walk, bike, not drive for daily errands, etc. without considerable effort if you live in the typical American suburb. I think the trend toward building less car-centric communities will result in healthier citizens but it's going to take a while.

[groar]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I suspect a lot of this depends on the bus route. My regular bus route has lots of friendly riders, many of whom have been riding together for years. They are typically nice to the drivers (saying thank you on the way out and such), and sometimes when a new driver shows up, I get the sense they are actually a little surprised at all the friendly riders. In any event, in that context at least, most of the drivers are pretty pleasant themselves.

i regularly take either the 88 or the 64 to get to the busway from my job, and the 64 is about 500% friendlier. i think part of it is that it only runs every half an hour, so the same people ride together with the same bus driver every day and everyone gets to know each other. i get christmas cards from some of the people i wait for the bus with! the 88 runs a lot more and i don't see familiar faces as often. it's also usually full of screaming teenagers when i take it. i avoid it when i can.

still though, in general public transit is pretty nice here, as far as the bus-riding experience goes. after living here for a while, i went back to visit nyc and got totally shocked looks when i reflexively said "hi" and "thank you" to bus drivers!

[PB&J O'Rourke]

Originally Posted by Herodotus

This makes me think of one of the many reasons why people are not as neighborly as they were many years ago. Up until the 1950's, and the explosion of suburbia, most people lived in the cities, and took the bus or streetcar to get around. As regular riders, you would become familiar with most of the people in your area, chatting with them at the car stop, and on the streetcar itself. Thus, not many people in your neighborhood would be a stranger to you. One of the results of this, is that people knew who your kids were, and felt free to put them in their place if they were seen misbehaving. The parents had no problem with this, as they usually knew who the other adult was. Today, people live farther apart, they come out and jump right in their cars, there are few neighborhood shopping strips where you can run into your neighbor, and where the summer's heat used to drive everyone out into the street, where they would mingle, now it drives everyone into the house where the AC is.

I know most of my neighbors, even occasionally run into them while out shopping (I swear my next door neighbor and I have some sort of mental tuning that makes us both want to go to Sam's Club at the same time, I've seen him there multiple times. We really ought to plan ahead and go together next time to save fuel since we both drive SUVs.) and while I don't know any of the local kids by name there are plenty of other adults happy to jump out a front door and yell at them if they misbehave.

My last leg home yesterday was a ~1 mile walk just as school let out and four just barely high school kids were walking the opposite direction from me goofing around and a woman in a Jeep stopped and started berating the one about his pants sagging and told him she'd jump out and "beat his ass" and then call his mom if he didn't pull them up. I thought that was kind of hilarious (And didn't think his pants were sagging too badly, even as someone who hates the saggy pants look) and so did all three of his friends.


I think what I like most about the North Side is how small-town it feels out of nowhere. I know that the city itself is RIGHT OVER THERE but it's all the way over there and out of sight = out of mind.

I could probably ramble for days if I let myself so shhhh

[Debbie1125]

Originally Posted by PB&J O'Rourke

At any rate, the point of my post is I was expecting a grumpy, less-than-thrilled driver, a smelly bus, and the dregs of society (... okay, the last part was half true) but what I got was a chipper, friendly bus driver who everyone seemed to know and like, the bus was clean and well maintained, and I didn't have to come home and immediately burn everything I was wearing.

That's one of the biggest myths those who don't ride mass transit have, that passengers are the lowest form of humanity and dirty. Thank you for saying that not all of the riders were like this.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Debbie1125

That's one of the biggest myths those who don't ride mass transit have, that passengers are the lowest form of humanity and dirty.

In Oakland at least, the dregs of society aren't nearly as much of a problem as college kids who don't remove their giant backpacks while they stand on the bus. They block the whole aisle and will totally smack you in the head if you don't watch them.

[ML North]

Most of my favorite bus moments involve transporting large and/or awkward things that I purchased on Craigslist.

I also once saw a dude carry a coffee table onto a city bus in the South Loop of Chicago.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

In Oakland at least, the dregs of society aren't nearly as much of a problem as college kids who don't remove their giant backpacks while they stand on the bus. They block the whole aisle and will totally smack you in the head if you don't watch them.

And for some reason, at least fifteen of them have to stand as close as possible to the front door, and won't sit down even if there are seats, making it a total PITA to get on or off any bus they're on (and no, they're not necessarily standing there because they're getting off soon).

[EveKendall]

I feel that the 61C (Homestead-Sq Hill-Oakland-Downtown) is hell on Earth. Always packed, primarily with oblivious students, women slapping their children, and sex offenders, it stops on every.single.block along Murray Ave until it is crammed so full of people that you cannot move. After riding it for a year and being groped twice I sucked it up and paid for parking in Oakland. It was a sad day because I much prefer public transportation, and used it all the time in cities I lived in previously.
I wish they would charge faculty and staff to ride and use the money to add more buses. I would rather pay for a decent ride than have a free miserable ride. It is nice for the students to ride free though.
Sorry to be so negative! I know other routes are much better.