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

[Ocklawaha]

HA HA HA HA Stephen, YOU are in for an adventure. EVERYTHING you have said so far mirrors my experiences as a JTA commuter in 1984...NOTHING has changed! WOW!

OH GUYS! Good wife Libby and Eldest daughter popped in this morning when I was down in the dumps over the computer mess and gave me a brand new LapTop. So watch out JAX. He's Bacccck! Hee Hee

Ocklawaha

[JaxNole]

from my experience in cities like NY & Chicago the bus drivers are a bit strict on the exact change rule. In New York of course, they kicked me off the bus and told me to get correct change and wait for the next.

In Seattle the particular bus I rode was a bit more forgiving, he just took the extra .50.

I've never quite understood the exact change rule either, if i'm willing to pay an extra .50 just so I can keep the flow going, what's the problem?

When I was in college in Boston, the drivers there would let me slide if I was short.  (I have seen the Riverside trolley drivers drop in extra change to make someone's fare if they didn't have enough.)  Both in Boston and here, they'll gladly take more than the posted fare; the passenger just needs to meet the minimum.

[gatorback]

I just ran 100 steps to catch the 100 flyer to the airport. I was 30 seconds late but the driver stopped thank god.

[Coolyfett]

Day T-2 (the saturday before the official 30 days)

The JTA shenanigans are a little too egregious to deal with.

There are only two conclusions to be drawn from today's first experience.  Either something is seriously wrong with me, or JTA is hiring their bus drivers solely from a pool of ex corrections officers, who largely need psychiatric attention.

From the shady corner of 6th and Main, I caught the E5.

After brutally offending the bus driver with a question so insulting that I felt lucky to have escaped a public flogging----, i.e. "How close do you get to Forsythe and Main?", I fumbled for the newfound wonder of my 40 dollar Month Pass.

"Here is my pass" I flashed it at him, hoping perhaps to curry back the favor I had already lost with my first question. 

"You have to swipe it." he said rolling his eyes.

This was a bit of a surprise.  No one had really mentioned swiping the damned thing.  I looked around for somewhere to do the swiping.  There is a little hotel door key looking slot thing on the pay tower.   

"There?"

The Busdriver, and it was not my imagination, began staring holes through me, in an attempt to drill straight through my heathen soul.  He waited until I got the card completely out of its little plastic protector and was about to attempt my first swipe.

"Is it July 1?" he asked venomously.

"No?" I responded wondering what the combination of venom and date question was about.

"Then why are you trying to use that pass?"

"Well I picked up the pass yesterday and they said it would be good for the busses"  Looking down at the pass, I did notice that the word 'July' was printed on it large as life.

"You cannot use that pass and they didnt tell you it would be good."

This last line was delivered in such a way as to question either my competence or manhood.  I decided to ignore it.

"Well what do I do?"

Apparently cash was the only option.  I grubbed around in pocket, produced bills, managed about 70 bucks in 10s and 20s.

"All I have is 10s and 20s, do you have change?"

"No."

I looked around imploringly at the, by now riveted, passengers.  With no disrespect, none of the people on the bus were likely to have change for a 10, except one pleasant woman near the front.  She didnt.

The bus slammed to a wrenching sudden stop, nearly catapulting me into the windshield and causing the pleasant looking woman to grab a panic bar to keep in her seat.

"Sir you will have to get off the bus."

This seemed a little unreasonable to me, and I interjected.  Look, I obviously have a 40 dollar month pass and plenty of cash, its clear Im not trying to defraud the JTA of a hard earned dollar.  Cant I just stay on until we get to the station?

Silence.  The driver opened the bus door.

By now the bus had travelled to the east side of springfield down 1st street.   On a Saturday Morning, there isnt an open business to get change for what seems like miles.  The bus driver knew this.  Dropping me off so far from civilization was a deliberate fuck you.

So I asked him his name.

"What do you need my name for?!"

Just curious.

"You don't need my name.!"

"Actually you are supposed to give me your name"  I peered around to look at his badge.  He manuevered his body so that I would have had to climb into his lap to see it.

"What do you need it for, then I'll tell you my name"

"Well actually Im going to make a voodoo doll for the JTA, and it helps during the burning ceremony if I can chant your name over it."

Clearly he knew a smartass when he saw one.  (By now the pleasant looking woman was shaking her head ruefully)

"You tell whoever you want to.  My name is (unintelligible) Brinson."

I got off and walked the additional 12 or so blocks, cursing the name of JTA to the skies.

I wonder how many people have had a similar experience where the customer loyalty or positive experience was tossed to the maws of the transit hellhounds for the sake of that stupid dollar?

Wow man!! you are really going though with it huh?? Id have to say stephens story is credible. I have seen this a couple times when I use to ride the R5 to UNF. Them buseys look like ex wrestlers even some of the chicks, and they expect everyone to know where they are going and what they are doing. JTA bus drivers don't like questions.

Stephen man you have to be a lil more aggressive. Everyone hates the rider that doesn't know anything. ESPECIALLY the drivers!!! You bought the card, it has a black strip on it like an ATM or credit card you'd have to know it has to be swiped somewhere man lol.

Learn one route at a time. Shit you probably could learn 5 in a day if your off work and have the time. Don't act like an airhead on the bus man. You don't want anyone trying to follow you home.

Why did your July card not work in July again??

[Coolyfett]

The Skyway, incidentally is a smooth piece of work for downtown.  I hopped on the skyway at Hemming Plaza using the 40 dollar monthly pass (there is a swiper at the turnstyle.) and was able to make the turnstyle work for the first time in months.

I was so intrigued by this, that I stepped back out and dropped 50 cents in to see if that worked as well.

It didnt.   Strange. 

HA HA HA HA HA HA man you have to use exit turnstyle on the left. The one closest to the library it is broken and swings both directions. Something is jammed in the coin machine your change is not making it to the coin box. That bum that was sitting near the bench went to the machine and sucked the coins out with this plastic  looking thing. Don't believe sit around and watch. Incredible.

[Coolyfett]

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. 

Valid......sad but valid.

[David]

When I was in college in Boston, the drivers there would let me slide if I was short.  (I have seen the Riverside trolley drivers drop in extra change to make someone's fare if they didn't have enough.)  Both in Boston and here, they'll gladly take more than the posted fare; the passenger just needs to meet the minimum.

Oh they will? I can't say from experience, i've never taken a bus in jax.

I have this thing about getting where i'm going in under an hour......

That's really all it is with JTA, it takes too long. What about sub-hubs? You know,  a  place  on the southside or westside, that does transfers for all points south or west instead of having to go downtown for everything. Going 5 miles the opposite way to go 15 miles back the way you came just doesn't work.

[stephendare]

Day Two.  Late Night.

From the Starbucks at 11east, I walked over the Main Street Bridge to catch a San Marco Bus.

Now a lingering design flaw of the Skyway Express is that it really only goes two places that anyone in that group called "Jacksonville Citizens" might want to actually go:  Hemming Park and FCCJ.  The rest of the goddam thing was built for tourists and out of town conventioneers who never seemed to really materialize.  If you are trying to get to the hotels and convention center, then Baby, the skyway is your choice.

Other than that its really just a convenient and super air conditioned way to get to the center of bus operations at the FCCJ Station or to Hemming Park.

They built the damned thing over the river as part of the acosta bridge, and then nonsensically circled around to King Street apparently calculating the exact number of blocks from San Marco that would make the average person think hiring a helicopter would be preferable.

Said all that to say this.  The area that hugs the river along the southbank riverwalk is a treacherous no mans land of JTA.

Im sure there is an essay that could be solely devoted to the southbank riverwalk situation, but ill struggle for brevity here.

There is NO CONNECTION between the massive skyway system and San Marco.

The Southbank is apparently lousy with corporate employees who need transportation to and from their cars in parking lots.  There are enough bus stops to accomodate the poor huddled masses of all the commuting nations of Christendom.  They are everywhere.   They are covered structures with neat little benches inside them and the ground is so thick with them that they are often facing each other across the street.

On first glance, one would assume that the southbank is a virtual nerve center of public transit.

The Skyway looms overhead and there are all these bus stops inexplicably close together along all the blocks.

But one would be tragically wrong.

None of the bus stops or stations belong to JTA.

In fact they arent available to the heathen public.

Years ago, the corporate towers apparently gave up on being able to get their employees in and out of the blocks distant parking lots in time via JTA or their parking garage/skyway combo and simply built more garages and lots and then purchased a fleet of their own minibuses.

They cut JTA out completely.

And it is very difficult to find which stops belong to JTA and which ones are prudential or Baptist employee stops.

Unless you know the routes, there isnt really any way of knowing where the JTA might have placed their stops so I made a guess that there might be a few along Mary and/or Prudential and/or San Marco Blvd.  It was after the hour which one might be able to reach JTA customer service.

I finally found a bona fide JTA stop on Mary.  SS-3 and SS- something.

There was an raucous BB rolling around in the boxcar of my mind that I was pretty sure was an ancestral memory connecting SS-3 with San Marco.

I sat there.

Prudential mini busses blew by one after another.  I began to have bus envy and anxiety.

JTA busses were also blowing by on other streets.

Some were jumping onto the expressway, others were headed down hendricks.

I thought I heard a jeer coming from one of the Prudential bitches.

That tore it.

I got up and started walking to the commonsensibly surer San Marco Blvd.

Naturally the minute I was too far away to haul ass back to the stop SS-3 blew by and headed towards the Square.

The stretch from the Museum of Science and History is a concrete wasteland of nothingness and traffic congestion.

There are plenty of decoy bus stops and one rickety JTA bench which was apparently designed to serve as a Human Rotisserie Grill.

If the JTA needs Advertising money in order to build recognizeable, comfortable bus stops, then for the love of god, give it to them.  The present situation is ri god dam diculous.

I walked further down, with bus anxiety gripping my colon.

I made it to the bus Heiroplyph Stick about a block away from the Stripper Club on San Marco.

Was it too late for any further San Marco Buses?

I called the Downtown Library which also carries every bus schedule for information.

While I was on the phone, the B-7 turned the corner.

I hopped on and was in the square in 4 minutes.

My observation in all this, is that you would think that the JTA would have obvious and visible interest in connecting Skyway stops with the bus stops to San Marco, since the Skyway System doesnt go there.

At the entrance of every Skyway Station on the Southbank, there should at least be schedules and maps of all the connecting routes.  Not just for the Skyway riders, but for all the rest of the incidental riders in the dense little area who will assume, like I did, that the most massive visible project of the JTA would naturally be a user friendly source of information.

Final note.  When going to San Marco from downtown, steer clear of the Skyway, and simply catch one of the busses that takes you to the square.   It will save anxiety and wait time.

[JaxNole]

When I was in college in Boston, the drivers there would let me slide if I was short.  (I have seen the Riverside trolley drivers drop in extra change to make someone's fare if they didn't have enough.)  Both in Boston and here, they'll gladly take more than the posted fare; the passenger just needs to meet the minimum.

Oh they will? I can't say from experience, i've never taken a bus in jax.

Yeah, last week, when coming back from The Landing on the Trolley, I didn't have change, but a dollar bill.  Since I didn't want to waste $0.50, I told the driver I was paying for the passenger behind me and he waved both of us on after I inserted my bill.

I think this thread is great.  I agree with a previous post that recommends learning a route before riding.  Ever ride the MTA in NYC without looking at a system map?  The MBTA in Boston has system maps at its major stops, but not all and good luck finding a bus route map at a stop.

JTA has room to improve in terms of boosting ridership with too many deficient items to list, but riding without knowing a route is worse than driving in an unfamiliar city without a map or GPS.

[stephendare]

Day Two.  Late Night.
Angel Bus Drivers.

Dinner at Pizza Palace with Rachel Wyckel from Mad Cowford.

Walking around San Marco.  Coffee and watching the movie, 'Running with Scissors" at Uncommon Grounds.

Its a little past 11, and the Square is still busy.  There is someone playing at Square One that has drawn the 30 something hipster crowd like flies.  Even the inimitable Ian Chase is in the square full of fat jokes.

I check my B-7 schedule and note that in fact, there is a late bus back to downtown.

B-7 is the latest bus of the evening from San Marco. 

At the stop facing The Loop, the bus came at 11:35.  I jumped on and was privileged to ride with one of the most interesting and lovely women (the bus driver) that I have met in a long time.

In her mid to late 50s, it turns out that she had been a seargant at one of the womens correctional facilities downtown.

Also on this last bus was a woman who turned out to be a client at the selfsame facility.

She had missed her return to the insitution by about 10 minutes (technically an escape charge).

Our bus driver, broke out her cell phone, called the commanding officer on duty, cleared the woman of any blame, and secured her back an entrance to the facility.

Turns out there are some really great drivers for JTA as well.

So I was able to go to the beaches without incident, navigate around downtown, head over to San Marco, and make it back to downtown all in one day.

Using the magic, 40 dollar monthly pass.

One last complaint to add to a fairly decent day.  There needs to be later buses in the core area for people who dont have to be in bed before midnightl

I walked 10 blocks back to the place in Springfield.  Damn Ian Chase and his fat jokes.

[BridgeTroll]

I walked further down, with bus anxiety gripping my colon.

   I have enjoyed the humor so far... What if you need to you use a bathroom in your travels??

[Downtown Dweller]

Can't do it Stephen, those busstops in the core are reserved for sleeping and drinking, there is a waiting list, and if you go to 7th E there is the nightly crack line waiting to use the covered stops, not sure why crack smokers need a cover, but there you have it....gotta take the bus before midnight.

[stephendare]

Can't do it Stephen, those busstops in the core are reserved for sleeping and drinking, there is a waiting list, and if you go to 7th E there is the nightly crack line waiting to use the covered stops, not sure why crack smokers need a cover, but there you have it....gotta take the bus before midnight.

Lol.   Lets see those guys compete with drunk springfielders.

I cant see that having but one or two outcomes.

[Eazy E]

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.

No, if you want to see real incompetence and inefficiency try applying for health care in the U.S., or, if you have health insurance, seeing a doctor.  Then you'll see a poorly run health care system, plagued by inefficiency and incompetence.  But, I agree, I will leave your obviously invalid argument for another time, as the JTA issue is really interesting and important.

[Downtown Dweller]

Can't do it Stephen, those busstops in the core are reserved for sleeping and drinking, there is a waiting list, and if you go to 7th E there is the nightly crack line waiting to use the covered stops, not sure why crack smokers need a cover, but there you have it....gotta take the bus before midnight.

Lol.   Lets see those guys compete with drunk springfielders.

I cant see that having but one or two outcomes.

You have a very valid point there