Regional Transit Authority….Trick the Public

So with all of the talk about the Detroit Metro area establishing a Regional Transit Authority it seemed like the right time to blog about my Flatiron Flyer Denver to Boulder experience (see prior Hakuna Matata blog).

My friend suggested I just hop on the Flatiron Flyer bus from Denver to Boulder for a quick visit when I was in town to see the Detroit Red Wings play last February. My mind started rewinding and replaying at fifty percent battery charged speed. RRRRRiiiidddeee aaaaaaa bbbbuuuusssss. Was that what she really said? The other part of my brain was in denial. Maybe a taxi? Maybe an Uber? I had just started Ubering…so yeah an Uber…

As my mind was still operating at slo mo, her speech continued at normal speed…

--- I took the Flatiron from Boulder to Denver last week and it was twelve dollars…no stops with the express, and we’ll pick you up at the stop. Just a minute Freddy (my friend’s husband) will look up the stop for you.

Could this really be possible that I was taking a bus? Motown girl? We love our cars right? Love our own little private space? Our own little private songs/books? Lack of odors? Love being in control even if it takes us twice as long to get there?

--- So Freddy says if you just take either the Flatiron I or the Flatiron II and then we can pick you up at the…

Ok then…looks like I am taking the Flatiron Flyer.

I can recall only a few occasions I’ve ever even been on a bus --- a bus of any kind. I didn’t ride a bus as a kid because our street was the last street inside city limits. If you lived inside city limits --- NO BUS RIDE FOR YOU. I was a Southside kid…lived on the other side of the tracks. A kid to be feared…one that walked miles to school. NO BUS RIDE FOR YOU. It built character, right? I don’t know that school bus rides much prepare you though for the world of a regional transit system.

I did ride a bus, a real municipal bus once in Chicago -- but someone else handled the logistics, so I’m not sure that counts. Truth be told I didn’t even pay. Then there was that time when I was in Vancouver for the Olympics. I didn’t have to pay them. It was free. The payment thing can be tricky. You have to have the correct change. And what if you don’t? NO BUS RIDE FOR YOU.

So…yes it looks like I was going to attempt a solo real life municipal bus ride.

I proudly announced to my Uber driver that he was to transport me the Flatiron Flyer bus.

---You sure that’s a bus? That’s not a train?

Maybe that’s the first key. Trick the public. Don’t really call it a bus. That way we won’t feel like we’re really riding a bus or using a regional transit system. The Flatiron Flyer sounds like a train…it sounds like a plane…but it does not sound like a bus. It sounds so much not like a bus that I questioned whether I had actually properly understood my friend. I googled.

---Hmmm…so the Flatiron Flyer leaves from the train station.

---Yeah…Uber driver says…I think it’s a train.

---Hmm…could’ve sworn she said it was a bus. Oh well, either way, I gotta get to Boulder. Maybe I will be taking a train after all.

So to the train station we go.

So the second key is to continue to trick the public by having the bus with the name that sounds like a train/plane actually depart from the train station not a bus station. Hey…here I am at the train station. It’s like taking a train. It’s not really like taking a bus. Because I don’t know how to take a bus. I know how to take a train…Now let me see…where are those train/bus things?

The Flatiron Flyers are not on the main level. If it’s a bus, I would think it would be at street level, but what do I know? I see signs. The Flatirons are on the lower level. I still am not confident that Flatirons are trains or buses…until I see a few beautiful buses sitting there as I descend the escalator. And as I am descending my heart starts pounding. For all of you bus riders out there, I can hear you chuckling. I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t know which bus to get on. What if I never make it Boulder? I need exact change. Why can’t I just pay with a credit card? Better yet, why couldn’t I just pay online? Ugh…why did I agree to do this? Where the hell is my car…why didn’t I rent a car? Okay yes….it would have cost more than the $12.00 and the hassle and the…Well here’s a very nice person, perhaps a bit disheveled, and a bit asleep, but still conscious – I’m sure he can tell me which bus to take to Boulder.

Suddenly I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz looking for the yellow brick road.

---Excuse me sir…So this is my first time riding a bus and I’m not sure which one to ride to Boulder. You see I haven’t seen my friends in a while…well you probably don’t need to know that.

His head shakes horizontally from side to side.

---Could you tell me where I might purchase a ticket?

I can almost hear my ruby red slippers clicking together…There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home…there’s no place like home.

An index finger appears beyond the end of his denim shirt. It points toward the information booth at the other end of the hallway.

I make my way to the information lady who tells me,

---Flatiron Two that’s the one you want.

---So is it the first door down the hall or second?

---Look above the door. Above the door it says Flatiron One or Flatiron Two…then it has the time.

---So can I buy a ticket?

---You can buy the ticket on the bus?

---How much is it?

---$12.00

---What if I don’t have exact change?

---I can give you change.

---Ok I need change.

I put the money in my pocket. I walk away from the window slowly count out a ten and two ones and wrap my fingers around the outside of them, then safely hold them in my pocket. It’s like that milk and lunch money you didn’t want to lose on your walk to school. It seems like such a long walk to that Flatiron Two door. I check to make sure the money is still in my pocket. Yup. Still there.

So I sit and wait…la de dah…la de dah. What if the bus doesn’t come? But it does…and when it does I get on the bus but the bus driver tells me to get on the other Flatiron bus because that one will get me to where I want to go faster with less stops.

---Ok then…and that bus is…?

---One door down.

And so one door down I go…no thanks to information booth attendant…but…moving forward. I am now on the Flatiron bus. I tell the bus driver where I am heading.

I notice when I am on the bus that there’s a lot of binging going on. Now, I know you’re supposed to pull that what looks like a metal clothesline thing that runs the length of the bus when you want to get off but I’m not sure exactly when you’re supposed to pull it. Do you pull it when you get on? Does that mean that you then want to get off at the very next stop after you bing? Do you wait until you get close to the stop that you want and then bing? How close? What if you wait too long to bing? Will the driver just bypass your stop? The bus driver did stop at my stop but not because I bingged. He stopped because I told him where I was going. He was trying to explain to me that I needed to pull that metal thing but it was ok because he knew the stop I needed. I was sorta half listening because I was just so happy he stopped where I needed him to stop. Inside I was just like Oh yea, Oh yea, my first bus ride by myself. I did it. I did it. It’s important to celebrate little victories.

I’ve also been using other modes of public transportation because of my daughter, who now attends University of Minnesota.

And I never would have thought it, this Motown City person, car culture USA, but I love Minneapolis’s green line and blue line. In fact, I love it so much when given a choice, I will take it instead of a car. --- I know, I can’t believe I said it myself. It’s a very easy jaunt from the airport to the campus (even changing between lines). It’s easy going between Minneapolis and St. Paul. And when my daughter asks why I’m taking the train to pick someone up from the airport instead of the car --- my response – “It’s easier. I don’t have to worry about parking. I like it better.”

Now it may just be me, but when I’m coming from an airport to a city, I want a train (like a Minneapolis green/blue line). I want my luggage with me. I don’t want to have to worry about dragging it up the stairs of a bus…I don’t want the hassle. I want to roll it onto a tram or a train and have it whisk me away. Make it easy for the public. Make it easier than cars.

And when I think about the Detroit Metro area as compared to Denver/Boulder or Minneapolis/St. Paul, I wonder about what other major city would be considered Detroit’s connector? What is great about Detroit is that there could be a number of them. But certainly it would seem Ann Arbor would top that list…

But first things first Regional Transit Authority…figure out a way to trick the public…we are a car culture after all.

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.