I’ve complained about this before.  One of my ways of trying to “give back” here in Fresno is to start riding the bus.  For me it is optimal because I only spend about 3 minutes total walking to and from the stop since where I live and my job is so close.  But that is not where the problem lies.

You see, when someone rides the bus they tend to want to arrive on time.  So if I go to the Fresno Area Exchange (FAX) website and the schedule says the bus arrives at :15 and :45 after the hour the bus should arrive at this time.  In every other major city I have ever been to it works this way.  When I went to Switzerland for three months it worked this way.

Well in Fresno it doesn’t work this way.

You see, every morning when I ride the bus I try to catch it at 9:15AM.  The other morning my bus never arrived until 9:35AM.  What gives?  Well many other people always ask this question every morning when the bus is late at random times.  This particular morning the drivers excuse was “this bus is slow.”  Give me a break.

The general attitude I tend to detect from almost all FAX drivers is that they are doing us a favor.  By me trying to give back to my city and paying their salary, they act like they are doing me a favor by even giving me a ride.  I’m sorry but this is not the case.  It is a two way street.  By me paying you money, you are paying me by getting to my destination.  The attitude with many bus drivers tends to be overly negative and non-confrontational and I don’t understand how the city tolerates it.  It’s almost as if I feel I’m having to deal with employees at the DMV.

That’s not to say some of the drivers do arrive on time.  The reason I know this is if I take the 8:45AM bus it is the same driver most of the time and he’s very courteous.  But shouldn’t this be how it always is?  How are you doing people a favor when they need to be at work or at interviews at a specific time?  It seems the city really doesn’t care.  Some people actually do have to be at work at a set time.  Or others have doctor appointments they need to be to and cannot be late.

I thought about it all week and came up with some suggestions I think could help the city embrace their local riders.  Especially since more people are trying to take the bus to save gas, go green or whatever you want to call it and not be restricted to only low income folks anymore.

Provide Real-Time Data

In other metropolitan areas, you can actually get real time information on transit routes from many sources online.  Check out Google Maps in the San Francisco area and you will see how transit information is already integrated nicely with arrival and departure times.  You can also get many iPhone applications that also do this.

So why hasn’t Fresno?  I’ve heard rumors that some bus transit systems have strict control over their route data and don’t want to open it up and expose it.  This is major fail and is just another example of companies and/or governments not embracing the people who need it.  I hope Fresno embraces this one day and opens up their data.  This also could present some great opportunities for local companies as well.

Get Rid of the Mandatory Breaks

This is what really irks me riding the bus in Fresno and a lot of other people as well.  It’s just baffling.  If you have ever rode the bus you may have noticed that randomly at some stops the bus driver will stop, get out and go into a fast food restaurant or store and get something to eat.  They then will come back, eat the food there while the bus is idling and make everyone wait until they are done.  This usually lasts about 15 minutes.

Does this make any sense to you?

I understand that all employees regardless of what field they work in require breaks, but there are optimal ways to go about it.  For example if I was ordering food at a restaurant and right before I went to give them money the cashier says:

“Hold on sir, I have to go on break.”

And sits there for 15 minutes not allowing another cashier to continue my purchase or order.  Doesn’t this seem wrong to you?  To me it does, and it seems actually pretty stupid.  Every other company where services is provided understand how to treat the customer, us riders, as top priority.

Each route has a beginning and end of the route.  In between or at the end, why can’t schedules be correctly defined that another driver would take over while the current driver takes their lunch or break?  I mean logically this makes so much sense.  Why do the paying customers have to pay for the fact the drivers causes people to be late to their destination?

I think if the FAX bus system fixes or addresses these two issues the bus route will be a much better and efficient system.  I am sure there are more things that can be done to improve it but these seem like steps in the right direction to me.

For now I will attempt to continue utilizing a failing system for the sake of saving gas.

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