30 Days of Plight. Stephen Dare goes JTA every day.

[Eazy E]

This is one of the best things I have read here.

Creative Loafing in ATL did a similar experiment a few years ago, using only MARTA busses, not the trains, and if I recall correctly, same results as SD is having.

[stephendare]

Thanks! Easy E.

Well now, I am going to depart Uncommon Grounds in San Marco (they have just added a hot sandwiches menu and a late night happy hour in addition to the coffee, incidentally...paninis. mmmm)

Im going to head back downtown and then take this Beaches Bus to see how all that works out, just in case its actually changed.

Be back with more.

[stephendare]

Day Two.

San Marco to the beaches.

This seemingly simple trip started without a hitch.

I walked from Uncommon Grounds to the Bus stop facing the Loop making it exactly 30 seconds after the B-7 (B for Baymeadows) left the station.

I located the heiroglyph stick only the find that there are two bus routes listed.  B-7 naturally, and the iconic sounding "U-2" route.

I decided to sit it out and wait.  Within 3 minutes the mysterious U-2 whisked up and I boarded.

Naturally there was nothing resembling a schedule or a route, but I assumed that any bus so close to downtown would be going back over the river.

How wrong I was.

U-2 pulled up to the King's Avenue Station and the doors opened.

The bus driverturned to me and said 'You do know that this bus isnt going downtown don't you?"

No, in fact I didnt.

"Well it doesnt"

No big deal, I thought.  Im at the Skyway station, I can just hop on it over the river.

"Just out of curiousity, where does this bus go after here?"

"It doubles back around and goes to Regency Square."  he informed.

Hmm... good to know.  You can get from San Marco to Regency if you need to.

Here is when things began to go sadly astray, or as I like to call such situations in progress, they went 'JTA'.

I walked the half block or so to the gates of the Skyway.  Only to find them firmly gated and locked.

I walked around to the opposing side.   same thing.

What the hell?

I looked off in the back ground where the driver of the U2 was shooting the breeze with another JTA employee.

Then I saw a small sign.

It informed its small part of the world, provided you were up close with bifocals that this branch of the Skyway would be out of commission for a couple of weeks beginning April 17th.

Its now July.

By this point a small yuppie tribe of about 12 began leisurely walking towards me from the parking lot.

They passed the two drivers.

The matriarch of this crew aped my own discovery of the closed gates.

"What the fucking hell" she asked.

"This station is closed, apparently"  I told her.

She was obviously quick on the uptake and we stood there for a moment united in disgust with no possibility of exacting revenge.

Her husband (Im making assumptions here) said.  "Well ya know.  Maybe the drivers could have told us that before we walked all the way down here."

"Or maybe a sign in the parking lot as you come in," responded Leona (my pretend name for the matriarch)

"You'd think" I added my own acid two cents.

As a group we stalked back to the drivers.

They informed us that they thought there was a shuttle running to the next station.  No one knew how long it would take to get back around to us.

"Shit on this" Leona decided.

The yuppie tribe stomped back to the parking lot.

Having no other recourse I waited.

15 minutes later, I telephoned customer service at 630-3100.

Justin, luckily, answered.

He apologized profusely for the mixup.  He gave me a list of busses that would be coming through the station over the next thirty minutes.  Nothing would arrive for at least 15 more minutes.

I thanked him and as I got off the line with him, a bus marked 'skyway shuttle' pulled up.

Well this isnt so bad then.  As I went to board, an attractive woman in her middle years disembarked.  Following right behind her in conversation the Driver of the replacement shuttle also disembarked.   They walked away together.

I boarded the bus, assuming the driver had to take a whiz.

12 minutes is an awful long time on a bus alone with no air.

Surely no matter how dire an emergency not even the human bowel would normally take this long to  perform its necessary functions.

Perhaps he had experienced liver or heart failure and was even now expiring alone without any help.

I told myself these things to rein in the visible impatience.

As soon as I walked three steps off the bus, I caught sight of the driver, chatting the hell out of the attractive lady looking as though he hadnt a care in the world.

He immediately saw me and the cozy vignette collapsed.  She tersely said goodbye and he walked back to the bus.

We drove in stony silence together to the next skyway stop where I disembarked and caught the next tram almost immediately.

This particular car went all the way to the FCCJ Station.

Within minutes of arriving (7) the BH-1 (BH for 'Beaches") arrived.

I flashed my terribly useful bus pass went to the back of the bus and nodded off to sleep.

An hour later I woke up as the bus was driving down 3rd Street, within three blocks of our beach house.

Without incident I got off the bus and walked the remaining two blocks.

So to answer your question, Lunican.  For whatever reasons Mike might have for doing so, he told the truth about eliminating the rock em sock em fare ambush between the beaches and town.

Now to return to town.

[BridgeTroll]

  We can only wish you the best of luck...

[stephendare]

We can only wish you the best of luck...

lol.  thanks.

I forgot to mention that the closed station at Kings Avenue was the only one with any notice that it was closed.   None of the other stations bore any signs whatsoever that anyone travelling to Kings Station was doomed to disappointment.

So I guess its now our little secret.  And of course, Leona's.

[RiversideGator]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

[Eazy E]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

Yeah, because the insurance system right now is run SO incredibley efficient, right? 
God, this argument makes me sick-- people act like our current system is so infallible, when, in fact, it's anything but.  But, why try something new, might as well stick with the current, crappy-beyond-belief system, right?

 

[Eazy E]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

Yeah, because the insurance system right now is run SO incredibley efficient, right? 
God, this argument makes me sick-- people act like our current system is so infallible, when, in fact, it's anything but.  But, why try something new, might as well stick with the current, crappy-beyond-belief system, right?

 

way to know how to use html tags, dork.

[Eazy E]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

Yeah, because the insurance system right now is run SO incredibley efficient, right? 
God, this argument makes me sick-- people act like our current system is so infallible, when, in fact, it's anything but.  But, why try something new, might as well stick with the current, crappy-beyond-belief system, right?

 

way to know how to use html tags, dork.

and, before anyone blows a gasket, that dork is ME, in case you missed it.

[RiversideGator]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

Yeah, because the insurance system right now is run SO incredibley efficient, right? 
God, this argument makes me sick-- people act like our current system is so infallible, when, in fact, it's anything but.  But, why try something new, might as well stick with the current, crappy-beyond-belief system, right?

No system devised by man will be perfect, but if you want to see real incompetence and inefficiency let the government run it.

Anyway, I am sorry I interjected this.  I dont want to threadjack Stephen's JTA thread with a debate on government run health care.

[vicupstate]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

If the fine folks in Ponte Vedra used the JTA to get around, the problems described in this thread would disappear virtually overnight. Trust me.  It is only because the least resourceful and powerful among us use the system that these problems persist. 

[gatorback]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

I think NASA, and NOAA run great(See Mars Landers).  And locally, JEA is 120% well managed. 

[Midway]

Yeah, but those are the exceptions that prove the rule.

And you could prove the rule even more by citing more exceptions!

[stephendare]

The amazing thing is you seem surprised that the JTA system is ineptly run and designed.  Anytime something is run by government it is run poorly and has bad customer service.  This is so common (although not universal) that it should be considered akin to a law of nature.  And to think you Obama people want this same bunch to control and ration life saving and life sustaining health care.   

If the fine folks in Ponte Vedra used the JTA to get around, the problems described in this thread would disappear virtually overnight. Trust me.  It is only because the least resourceful and powerful among us use the system that these problems persist. 

Funny you say that, Vic.....

Well I am back from the Beaches.   And I am happy to report that if there is one thing that the JTA does well (and always has, for that matter) it is the beach bus service.

Rule 1 is that you have to catch the bus either at the FCCJ Station or the Regency Square Bus(t) Station.  These are the most convenient and easiest to find stops.

BH-1 (BH for "Beaches) is the route.  It leaves roughly every thirty minutes, and the busdriver pretty much gets to haul ass down Atlantic Blvd. Once you get to the Beaches themselves it runs down A1A the entire length of the community with frequent bus stops and friendly awesome passengers.  All I had to do was flash the 40 Dollar Monthly Bus Pass, and didnt have to think about transit related issues again.

After dropping in to say howdy to my L'il Mama. I just walked back up two blocks and waited 12 minutes before I was back on a bus headed to town.  An hour later I was back at FCCJ Station.

Five minutes later I was back at the corner of 7th and Main in Springfield to drop in and feed the cats and putter around in the building.

An hour later, E-5 brought me back down Main Street to FCCJ and the Trolley dropped me off at Starbucks.  Which is where I am now.

The biggest problem I am running into right now is the vulgar lack of communication and some blisteringly bad customer service.

That and to Riverside Gator's satisfaction, a level of beaurocratic incompetence in cross communications that is enough to boil the eyes from the sockets.

[JaxNole]

The Green Line in Boston will let you ride free if you don't have your money ready just so they can stay on schedule.

If they are running late they don't collect fare from anyone. I'm not sure if that's their official policy but it happens every time I'm there.

Not only that, but the outbound, above-ground trains are free!