by Joe Orman
As I stepped out of my dorm and towards the bus stop in front of U of R’s Rush Rhee’s Library, I caught a lucky break. Bus #19 had stopped for the driver’s break, meaning I could ride from U of R to Mt. Hope to South Ave, eliminating the uphill walk I had braced myself for. I stepped on the bus, and noticed that there was no driver. So I waited, and by the time she had reappeared, waited some more, and put the bus in gear, I missed my second bus. “Ok”, I thought, “No problem, I can catch another, I won’t be late”. Then the bus took a right at the bridge at S. Plymouth, and I realized that I was on 19X Plymouth to Downtown. I quickly got off the bus and walked back to Mt. Hope questioning my ability to function as an adult. As I now sit In Saxby’s Coffee staring defeated at my bagel, I realize that the problem that most of my friends and I see with RTS is that it is not built for the average brainless college student. In order to better serve the Rochester community, RTS must college-proof its busses and routes, ensuring that from RIT to St. John Fischer, students everywhere are able to navigate our city while simultaneously being completely unaware of their surroundings.
Some suggestions include:
Signs on the sides of busses that hit you in face in order to be sure you know which bus it is.
An app that gives you direction in Buzzfeed titles (“10 surprising ways to get to the Bug Jar”).
Direct stops at your favorite college hotspots, because it’s not like we have school transit to Wegmans and Downtown.
Turning the buses into a taxi service, since that’s the only thing we seem to understand.
I hope RTS will listen to my suggestions as I board the 9:38am #45 from Mt. Hope and Elmwood…. I mean the 10:02am…
Joe Orman is a Central New York native studying Anthropology and Legal Studies at the University of Rochester. This summer his he serving in the Rochester Urban Fellows Program under AmeriCorps Vista at Refugees Helping Refugees on South Avenue. You can find him regularly at the Highland Park Diner, The Little Theatre, Pittsford Cinemas, Java’s, and on the airwaves at 10pm on Mondays as a student radio jockey for WRUR 88.5FM. He fell in love with Rochester once he discovered the accessibility of art and music in the city, and as one of the many members of the Rochester community without a car, he hopes to explore as much of the city by bus and bike as possible.