Get yer Gmail

I don't really expect anyone to respond to this, mostly because I don't really expect anyone to read this, but I have a stack of gmail invitations and no one to give them to. If you want one, email me at claxton6 at theotherleading dot com, and I'll pass it on.

Deaths from Power Plant Pollution

Bus drivers

I bashed the AATA a little bit for their bus fares, so I thought I should note that what they get really right is their drivers. I've been using bus systems to get around since 1995. I'm not a real chatty person, but I try be friendly and always smile and nod at people in greeting. I've seen personable bus drivers and cranky bus drivers. (In particular, the UM bus drivers tend toward the cranky side.) But the AATA drivers, more than any others, seem to go out of their way to help out riders. I've never been particularly talkative with them, but most of the ones who drive my route seem to know the regularsIn fact, the bus riders themselves are more friendly, and more apt to form social groups on the bus, than any I've seen elsewhere. To some extent, these groups extend beyond the bus to work (present or past), but my impression is that most of the contact is maintained during the morning commute. pretty well, and carry on conversations during the drive. (Which seems faintly unsafe, but mostly it's nice to see.) Occasionally, though, the drivers do something stand out. One morning, I was coming out from my street onto the road where I catch the bus, just as the bus was passing. I figured that I'd missed it, but saw the bus stop, waiting for me. I hadn't signalled, the driver just knew to stop. Today, even more spectacularly, on the way home from downtown, the bus picked up a woman who didn't speak English very well, from in front of the Greyhound station. The driver pulled away as the woman paid, and then helped her figure out which stop she needed. The only problem was that she needed the Greyhound station, and hadn't realized that she had been standing next to it. At the next stop, the driver sorted through this, and tried to describe where the station was relative to where she got on the bus. It wasn't getting through, so he got off the bus with her to point it out. It was before noon, and the bus wasn't crowded, so it wasn't a big deal, but I think that it says something that he went to that much effort to help a passenger who didn't know where she was going.

Bus fares

I was thinking about bus fares yesterday. Usually, I buy a monthly pass, but since school's out, the $40 isn't worth it for just a few rides a month. Fare is a dollar, and includes a transfer pass that can used for up to 90 minutes. The catch is that it can't be used for a return trip on the same route.

I think this is a mistake. I think it's in the transit authority's interest to make the bus attractive for quick trips, and a pay once for 90 minutes (or more; I think bumping it up to two hours would be good) of service is a useful model. It makes it easier to run to the store or to downtown for brief errands without needing to pay twice. I don't think that it's a strong rational issue, so much as an impressionistic sort of thing. Then again, I also think that time-based fares are more sensible anyway.

The upside to electricity deregulation

I hadn't realized that this was happening, but apparently at a couple of companies in New York are using deregulation to offer electricity produced from a cleaner mix of sources (wind, landfill gas, hydro), but at a higher price. Bears some looking into.