We do have to change what people think of the poor old bus.

No it wasn’t GCRTA but a much smaller and newer agency in a neighboring county to the southeast.

Your web site is great, by the way. I often use it to double check schedules and routings when I come to Cleveland. With all the construction and street closings going on downtown this past year, the timely info on reroutes was greatly appreciated! Between the web site and the updated signs posted at bus stops, what could have been a very difficult experience became relatively easy. Or as easy as can be during construction.

I hope that experience wasn’t in Cleveland. As the GCRTA’s web site manager (and a lifelong transit user, though not a lifelong Clevelander) I’ve made it a point to increase and enhance the amount of information we provide to our riders. And I would sincerely hope that noone would ever feel unwelcome on our system.

That being said, I agree that the hills we have to climb to overcome public misconceptions are steep. Of course, any time I need reassurance about the “value” of transit, I just look at my retirement account and think how much of that would have otherwise gone toward a personal vehicle’s upkeep…

I said, why don’t they take the bus or the trolley instead. It was gently explained to me that “Lawyers and legal people don’t take busses.”

Maybe they should.

The image of transit has to be improved. It’s a good way to travel, but it has a lousy image to the public.

Growing up in northeast Ohio, the bus was only for poor people. In fact I still get that feedback when I ride a bus while visiting my hometown. I was actually told by a passenger that I was stealing from him by riding the bus. It was implied that bus riding was only supposed to done if you were below a certain income level, like food stamps or a welfare service. Unfortunately that attitude runs deep throughout this particular agency and I suspect many others. Information about service changes is posted on board buses, but rarely on their website. I learned that the hard way when I came home for my college homecoming this past fall. Major route change, but nothing on the website.

I had a similar treatment this fall when I was in Charleston West Virginia and took the local bus from our hotel to downtown Charleston. Schedules and route information were next to impossible to find. On board I felt like an outsider, that I was not supposed to be using “their” bus. I felt an unspoken uneasiness aboard almost every bus I rode there.

Overcoming this ingrained attitude is a challenge we must overcome if we are ever to succeed as an industry, let alone a country. And the sooner we do it, the better off we will be.

Thanks for the kind words about safe public transit in DC. We are proud of the Metrorail, Metrobus and DC Circulator services. We’ve come a long way from dirty buses and are proud of the clean burning ultra low sulfer diesels we’re using in the city. Please, visit us again soon!

Anne Carey
Project Manager
DC Circulator