I looked in the mirror Thursday afternoon and realized I sorely needed to shave.
Unfortunately, I was out of razor cartridges, so I also needed to do some shopping. Because riding the Blue Route as usual would have been far too simple, I opted instead to take advantage of the special deal being offered by the Charlottesville Transit Service.
For the entire month of October, CTS allowed students to ride their buses for free.
Students, of course, can already ride the CTS Trolley and the University Transit Service at no cost. Second-year Engineering student Janine Hall, for example, said she does not need to ride any other CTS transportation now that her friends have cars.
However, while Hall said the other buses do not go anywhere she cannot already reach, she also pointed out that they do "go pretty far down [Route] 29."
Perhaps, then, CTS could be a useful resource for students in a bind.
With only a few days left to find out for free, the offer was a now-or-never proposition that I simply had to seize. It was time for me to determine whether CTS is a service that many students have been missing out on.
So I created a mission for myself. I was determined to ride a city bus to the Barracks Road Shopping Center, where I could purchase a pack of shaving cartridges at the local CVS.
But first, I had to figure out how.
A quick search on Google brought me to the official CTS Web site. This site can be very helpful to University students who have barely experienced CTS beyond the trolley. Visitors can download the map and timetable for nearly a dozen buses.
Each map shows every stop along the Route as well as many relevant points of interest. Furthermore, I found the timetables very easy to read. I learned that four different Routes make stops near the University.
Routes 3 and 4 appear to cover some residential areas just beyond the reach of the Blue and Orange lines while 2 and 7 might be particularly useful for shopping outings since they both cover locations on Route 29 and the Downtown Mall.
What I needed on Thursday was Route 2, which would take me from the familiar JPA/Cabell Hall stop all the way to the shopping center in about 10 minutes.
I arrived at the bus stop about 50 minutes too early. I sadly watched numerous UTS Blue Routes, several trolleys, CTS Route 4 and countless cars drive by before I finally glimpsed CTS Route 2 on the horizon.
While waiting, I thought it would be good to double check the bus schedule and make sure I knew what I was doing.
Posted on one wall of the bus shelter were several old notices. A few feet up from the ground (I had to squat to read it), I found the CTS map and timetable.
Unless you were really familiar with the City of Charlottesville, it might have been difficult to understand this surprisingly detailed road map with a highlighted bus Route and lots of street names. I much preferred the very minimal map design featured on the Web site.
I had just enough time to determine that my bus would arrive at 3:50 p.m. before my knees began to ache and I had to sit down again on the bench.
I think it would be helpful if CTS made sure all its signs were posted in line-of-sight locations. I should not have to squat or kneel just to read a map. To be fair, all the good real estate on that wall was filled with University bus material -- but surely, no one still needs the UTS service calendar from Winter 1993!
While seated on the bench, I noticed something peculiar: When CTS Route 4 and the trolley happened to approach the stop at the same time, the trolley stopped while Route 4 quickly swerved into the next lane and sped on by. Since UTS buses nearly always stop when people are waiting, this was fairly confusing. Was the schedule lying? I had to kneel down and check again.
Eventually, Route 2 approached the stop exactly on time. I was so excited over the schedule's accuracy that I never realized this driver also had no intention of stopping.
"Were you waiting for No. 2?" asked Scot French, Virginia Center for Digital History director, who was standing next to me. He informed me that the buses will not stop unless you flag them down significantly.
"You have to know the little tricks," French explained.
We chatted for a few more moments about bus riding frustrations. Our conversation was cut off, however, when French had to walk away and vigorously wave for the Route 4 bus.
Alone at the stop once again, I had no intention of waiting yet another hour for the next arrival. Instead, I took the far more frequent Blue Route to the shopping center.
So now I had my shaving cartridges, but I had yet to experience my free ride. As luck would have it, however, I discovered a bus shelter right across the driveway from CVS. A few schedules were posted beside it -- I had to crouch to read the bottom-most.
One schedule was for Route 5 with service to Wal-Mart. Given that Wal-Mart is a fascinating phenomenon, I decided to head over for a while.
To my surprise, the bus actually arrived across the driveway from the posted schedules, but at least this one actually stopped.
I showed the driver my student ID, received no complaints from the man and prepared myself for a 45-minute drive.
Considering it might only take 15 minutes to get to Wal-Mart from Central Grounds by car, 45 minutes seems rather excessive.
It is unfair, however, for me to complain because CTS is not just for students. Route 5 has to stop at many places in between the two shopping centers where community members actually live.
Plus, the trip's burden is quite ameliorated by the bus's comfortably spacious design. My only complaint about my ride was that the driver was a bit gruff and flustered a man who was not sure if this was the bus he wanted.
By the time I arrived at Wal-Mart (exactly on schedule) it was already 5:30. According to the pamphlet I picked up onboard, this bus was also the very last one back to Barracks. Most CTS Routes, as it turns out, do not run in the evening, although Route 7 is a notable exception.
Anyway, not wanting to waste my trip (and ignoring what I learned in ECON 201 about sunk costs) I reluctantly left the bus to peruse Wal-Mart's electronics department, effectively stranding myself.
It seemed that a 14-dollar excursion via Yellow Cab was my only option for returning home.
While certainly quicker and more "customizable" than the CTS buses, Charlottesville taxis can be very expensive. Meanwhile, at 75 cents a trip, it is really hard to pass up a ride on CTS.
It is the low cost in particular that led me to ignore the system's flaws, which can be avoided anyhow with a little prior research online.
As long as you keep the tight schedule in mind and learn how to get the driver's attention, CTS is a viable option to get to many places UTS or one's own feet simply cannot.
However, for this rider, before the University considers investing in anything like free rides for students, issues like confusing signs and unclear stopping protocols ought to be addressed.
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