Dear Madison Metro employee “Chrissie,” (names changed to protect the idiotic)
Why is it that, when I email you requesting a route from my home to my workplace you tell me no such route exists, when I am able to map the route on your website in less than three minutes? I’d have done it myself last Friday but I was in shock after having been in a major car crash. What’s your excuse? True enough, there is no single bus that takes me from one to the other, but remember a couple years ago when you spent millions of dollars to build TRANSFER POINTS (and then didn’t actually put a roof on the one in the poor black neighborhood, but that’s another rant you racist swine)? Maybe next time someone asks for a route you could take into account that they MIGHT NEED TO TRANSFER AT A TRANSFER POINT.
Dear Madison Metro Employee “Consuela,”
Why, after I map my own route and I call you looking for the nearest stop do you tell me that the bus doesn’t stop anywhere on my street when the aforementioned TRANSFER POINT is on my street? I realize I was using a street name instead of the TRANSFER POINT name, but seeing as how it’s your job to help people find their way and many of them will be going from TRANSFER POINT to TRANSFER POINT it might behoove you to learn the names of the streets where the TRANSFER POINTS are located. I also have to ask, why would you use the name “Target Center” to identify a stop when the actual name of the center and the name printed on your route schedule is “Prairie Towne Center”? I modestly believe that I am of at least above-average intelligence, and I had no idea that you were referring to the one center by a different name. Bear in mind that it is likely, being a frontline customer contact with bus riders, that you’re probably going to be dealing with lots of people who will need fairly precise information and using names that are different than what’s on your schedules is going to do nothing but confuse us.
Sorry, I know I haven’t really used up my quotient of foul language for this OP. I hope you’ll all help fill the gap by spewing your own obscenity-laced invectives at Madison Metro for me and will share your own mass transit horror stories.
Preach on brother. While I (fortunately) haven’t had to use Madison Metro’s “services” in quite some time, I do have the distinct pleasure of working not two blocks from the westside transfer point (conveniently made w/o windblocks, so as to keep “undesirables” from holing up there). Naryt a day goes by that one of those cuntswab bus drivers nearly kills me by careening their 20 ton vehicle across three lanes of traffic w/o benefit of a turn signal. Apparently, despite the fact that they drive the same fucking route everyday, it still comes as a surprise that they must change lanes to get to the transfer station and they’re forced to do it at the last minute.
Don’t even get me started on their driving skills on downtown side streets. What better way to completely snarl an already clogged, too-small street by having a bus stop every 25 feet in one lane to let the solitary rider out at each stop.
Get rid of them all together, (except in direct downtown routes)says I. That, or stick a snowplow on the front and kill two birds with one stone.
I rode my bike every morning in 20-degree weather in Madison last semester for a variety of reasons. Not having to deal with the metro system’s schedules was not the least of them.
Yeah, that bus system is pretty crazy. I’m amazed you got a response. I sent a pretty reasonable but rather concerned letter about drivers purposely driving past me – a lone female at night at a lonely bus stop – despite being the last scheduled bus and clearly marked as my route. Thanks guys.
That being said there are bus systems that are MUCH worse. At least the system was pretty expansive, and for students it’s free so I couldn’t gripe too much.
I don’t know, folks. I used the Madison Metro bus system for years. Haven’t experienced the problems that you folks describe. The schedule book seemed clear enough to me. Maybe you should sharpen up your reading comprehension skills.
MM has a better safety record than most big city bus systems. It goes without saying that the employees are better drivers than the general public.
If you’re standing at a bus stop at night, in the dark, it’s a good idea to wave something that reflects light to catch the driver’s eye, like a piece of paper or tinfoil, especially when it’s raining. Drivers shouldn’t miss passengers at stops, of course, and any driver who’s caught doing so will get reprimanded by a supervisor.
And stop whining, you pampered fucks. Try riding the buses in NYC, Chitowne, or LA. Get to know rudeness, dirt, and indifference on an up close and personal level.
Hey, I took mass transit in Chicago and their website was like ice cream. I punched in a starting and ending point and immediately got back complete routing information, round-trip, for the entire day. Whereas with Madison Metro I wait two days for “no route exists.” As I said, I found it in about three minutes when I looked at the map while not in shock.
I emailed “Chrissie” back pointing out the route and suggesting that next time she take transfer points into account. She sent a whiny email back, the gist of which was “I take that into account every time. I put it in the computer and the computer said there was no bus.” GIGO, bitch. GIGO. Next time try eyeballing it.