The Ride - wherever life takes you

This was going to be a post about word choices and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority's bus system - and may yet be - but first I want to talk about snow.

We are all bus enthusiasts in our household, partly out of laziness (bus stop around the corner with a bus that takes us downtown - no search for parking! no search for quarters to pay for it!) and partly out of a feeling that we should take advantage of mass transportation if we want it to continue to exist. Both our boys started riding the bus as newborns tucked into slings, prompting other riders to ask, "Hey! You got a baby in there?" Older Son learned his numbers by the bus routes and now, at age 7, is very capable of giving route recommendations to visitors to our town. We look forward to the day when we can hand him a bus pass and say, "Go forth, young man!"

When the weather turns bad and we have to abandon our bikes for days or weeks at a time, we especially depend on the bus. With cars sliding all over the roads, I like the feeling of being in a nice big bus driven by someone with special training. So particularly during these snowy days, we have to be able to get to the bus stop. Our neighbors are very good at shoveling their sidewalks, but there are two places that tend to be obscured by snowdrifts: curb cuts and the bus stops themselves. This is because no one is responsible for clearing them, and city snowplows clearing the streets push packed snow up against the curbs. It doesn't matter how beautifully the sidewalks are shoveled if you can't get off them at the corners, and it doesn't matter how faithful bus service is if you can't make it to the bus door from the sidewalk. This problem is particularly trying for those of us who struggle to push children in strollers.

Yesterday I decided to take matters into my own hands. When I set off to pick up Older Son from school, I stuck our short shovel on top of the stroller and tried to keep it from falling on Younger Son, who naturally insisted on running alongside the stroller. Between the walk there and the walk back, I was able to clear most of the obstructed curb cuts - after a fashion. But I'm beat. This is clearly not a sustainable solution.

At dinner, our family discussed other options, and we came up with a plan: follow the model of stretches of highway shoulder (or further out - what is that called, the elbow?) that are adopted by various civic organizations, who undertake to clear litter and otherwise keep the area groomed. Perhaps the city could have organizations adopt corners and bus stops. I picture little signs underneath the route markers and street signs publicizing the name of the generous organizations.

If we as a community wish to attract more bus riders for whatever reason, we have to make it easy for them. And why not make it easy for everyone who already rides the bus while we're at it?


Now, about those word choices. Not that the AATA asked my opinion - does anyone? - but when you hear something over and over, it works its annoying way into your brain. In this case, it's the following recording by the pleasant-voiced Bus Lady, heard several times every trip:

Please remember to take your personal items with you when exiting the bus.

I don't have a background in public health, but I find personal items conjures up used Kleenex - or worse. While I'm sure the AATA doesn't want that sort of thing littering their buses, somehow I don't think that's what they had in mind. What's wrong with the word belongings? As for exiting the bus - isn't it grammatically suspect? I suppose the 'you are' is implied by the earlier 'your,' but I don't like it. And there is the faintest whiff, to my ears, of someone barely restraining him- or herself from using a horrific parallel to the non-word deplane. Debus? Let's hope not. As a first draft, may I respectfully suggest:

When you get off the bus, please look around to make sure you aren't leaving anything behind.

It's a little wordy, but there isn't a mother who doesn't say the equivalent twenty times a day. Everyone who is or has a mother should be able to relate.


Finally, the bus geeks in our family (namely, all of us) are thrilled by the AATA's new fleet of hybrid electric buses. Our hearts swell with pride here in the People's Republic of Ann Arbor. However, a flier announcing their implementation proclaimed For Cleaner Air and a Brighter Future. The cleaner air part is perfectly straightforward, but I'm afraid the brighter future bit sounds unthought-out. How, brighter? In fact, given recent pronouncements about global warming, our future may be a lot brighter than we'd like it to be. Let's be fashionable, and go with a greener future.


All of us would like to take this opportunity to thank the bus drivers and other AATA employees, who make it possible for us to go where we need to go.