City busses are either too early or too late; they’re also disgusting

Last month, one of [the Asheville city] bus drivers looked straight at me and went off and left anyway. [The Asheville Transit Authority] gave me a monthly pass for having to walk three and a half hours home. I don't think I ever said thank you. I don't think I did.

Second, the buses are filthy. I watched a baby puke down the front and back of a seat the first of the month, and it is still there. I've watched people comb out the nastiest hair imaginable, and brush it off on the seats next to them. Other people sit in that without knowing it's there, because you don't clean the buses.

Don't you people have any shame? Any regard for anyone else's dignity, or is it all about money and how much you can pocket? I still believe three trained monkeys can pick routes and timing better. If you can't find three in your commissions and councils (that never actually ride the buses), again, let me know and I'll cull three from the pack to overhaul a system you obviously care nothing about. Except, of course, being paid to "oversee."

I realize there are two broad concepts in the paragraph above, so let me reiterate.

Filth is one, and routes/timing is the second.

Last but certainly not least, I read in the paper yesterday that there was almost a half million dollars appropriated by the U.S. government for local transit bus replacement. Either of you care to wager that money gets spent on something else?

Seriously. … Let's make a wager at a City Council meeting.

What do you say? No guts.

— Gregg Watson
Asheville

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5 thoughts on “City busses are either too early or too late; they’re also disgusting

  1. Public Transit Advocate

    If you can’t find three in your commissions and councils (that never actually ride the buses), again, let me know

    Councilman Bothwell is a strong supporter of public transit and rides the bus all the time.

  2. cwaster

    I have also encountered them being late or early. As well, some of the drivers (in my opinion) speed and are rude.

  3. Bert

    Buses are the most impractical form of mass transit. If Asheville bit the bullet and put in a trolley or monorail, you would see so many people riding; I know I would. Imagine being able to get on an efficient and on time trolley or monorail instead of dealing with the rush hour Merrimon traffic. Of course, no one in Asheville is willing to spend the money to do that, and so our roads are clogged and we have to rely on these giant exhaust pumping and inefficient buses as our only mass transit.

  4. UnaffiliatedVoter

    Clean the busses? what? why? this is Asheville, where all natural trumps clean.

    And what about all the environmentally UNfriendly sidewalks everywhere? We need gravel paths which drain naturally, NOT more ANTI GREEN sidewalks!
    Remember the City Council green agenda?

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