Riding out the critics

Of the handful of reader letters I received in response to my column on taking the Metro to Dodger Stadium (“The Long Ride Home,” July 10), my favorite — and by favorite I mean the snarkiest email — came with the subject line reading “You Should Keep Your Car.” The email indicated that this reader feels that since I don’t “seem to have what it takes to ride public transportation,” I ought to continue using my car in lieu of trying to do the earth a little good via using mass transportation. That hurts.

However, she did make one good point, as I found out via other reader emails. I should have checked the schedules a little more thoroughly. For if I had, I’d have been privy to the useful information that the 218’s last route ran at 8:52 p.m. (something every reader’s email indicated.). That is, if I’d had the foresight to plan my route a little better, theoretically I could have saved at least an hour, thus shortening my rather unpleasant first experience on
the Metro.

I say theoretically because even without the egregious oversight on my part, riding the Metro just can’t hold a candle to the delightful experience of using the public transportation system provided by our Bay Area sister city. Better yet, as a result of my three-day weekend in San Francisco, I’m quite confident that I do in fact have what it takes to utilize public transportation. 

I parked the XT upon arriving in Pacific Heights. From Thursday until Saturday evening (barring two cab rides) I relied solely upon the San Francisco municipal bus system to shuttle me from Castro to North Beach to Chinatown to Cow Hollow with nary a mishap, missed bus, interaction with a drunken transit worker or more than a 15-minute wait at any stop. I never once consulted a bus schedule, relying solely on the muni bus map located in the visitor’s guide.

This is noteworthy because I do not live in San Francisco, yet I managed to utilize their muni system with absolute ease, comfort and trust in the reliability of its routes. In my own home city, I managed to completely botch the mass transit system to the point that the thought of using it again is only marginally more appealing than a root canal.

The truth is I don’t have an axe to grind with our metro system. I’m just a bit disappointed in it. Granted, San Francisco is compact whereas greater Los Angeles is seemingly infinite. All the same, for $1.50 in the Bay Area you can ride the routes of the city for four hours, transferring as often as you like, and chances are that, in contrast to my Metro experience, you’ll be able to travel more than 25 miles in that time.

Much to my delight, other readers were more constructive and helpful in their feedback. Yes, they all mentioned that I was a bit irresponsible in not checking the schedules of the buses. Duly noted. Even better, I did learn some really helpful information about our Metro system, which deserves recognition.

First, Brigham Yen was kind enough to let me know about www.rapidbus.net which will deliver the estimated arrival time of the next scheduled bus on a route, straight to my Blackberry. (This alone could have prevented the 218 misstep.)

Similarly, Matthew Ballard was helpful in his letter as well, informing me (though I have not personally verified this) that “the Metro buses do have automated announcers on them that announce all stops, although, as you saw, they unfortunately don’t always work. Usually if you let the driver know where you are getting off in those cases, they usually will let you know.”
Clearly, I’m going to have to give the Metro another shot. I concede that it is unfair to base my opinion on one Metro experience when I failed to conduct due diligence. Plus, now I’m armed with all this insider info that should serve to make the next trip smoother sailing. Still, the Metro is going to have to pull out all the stops — yeah, I went there with that pun — for me to consider it anything less than extraordinarily subpar in comparison to the muni system in San Francisco.

So for the time being, I will keep my car, thank you very much.

Contact Jen Hadley at jmhadley624@yahoo.com.