Now, I love trains, buses, and all forms of public transportation. That's probably pretty obvious from this blog! But I'm quite familiar with the critique that these are, from a certain perspective, a bit, well, boring. Not flashy--or, ironically, at their worst when they try to be flashy. Quotidian, quite literally. Ordinary, almost by definition.
But for me? Boring is good.
The most interesting times on public transit are when it doesn't come, or when you have to do something extraordinary to compensate for its failures. It's a good story, at least in the right crowd or context, that I once walked an hour across suburban Rochester snow and semi-non-existent sidewalks to a boardgame place for game night. It's kinda interesting, again in the right group, to have tried once to commute to Brockport from Brighton (sorry for piling on, Rochester) across multiple buses and infrequent connections.
What it isn't is a sign of good transit.
It's much less interesting to hear how my dad commuted day in and day out via a single direct bus from our house to his work for most of forty years. It's hardly narrative at all; it's not a story, it's just a fact.
But it's a fact that speaks to a much better transit experience--especially when we consider that my dad worked weird and irregular hours, so that wasn't just a single well-timed bus.
It's not exciting to hear about transit with smooth connections, no emergencies, and consistent coverage of a mettro area.
But it's pretty dang great to live with, or to visit.
Boring is good; it's excitement that you have to worry about.
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