Backstory: Sold my car in 2007 when I moved to NYC. No car in NYC 2007 thru 2010. Back to Austin in 2010. Temping for 4 years 'til 2014, so took the bus 'til financially secure. Finally bought a car in summer 2016.
I've had no problems with my nice little 2011 Mazda 2 ever since I bought it used in the summer of 2016. Today, though, it wouldn't start. I had a hair appointment, so I was forced to take the bus again to get there (and to get in to work afterwards to do a few clean-up things like turn in my end-of-month timesheets).
I don't mind being out on the street waiting for a bus and walking to and fro. In fact, I like that in theory. I feel too cloistered just living in my apartment (which has no views) and getting in my car to go to work only 3 miles away. Cloistered and claustrophobic. That said, taking the bus today reminded me of why I hated the bus much more than my current feeling of mild cloisterism.
(1) You're at the mercy of the driver. On my way to my hair appointment today, the driver was super-nice and let me off at a corner where the bus usually turns rather than stops. Had I gotten off at the actual stops either before or after, I would have had to have walked nearly a mile to my destination. Because my driver was nice, I only had to walk a few steps. That was the good thing. Later in the day, however, on my way home from work... The bus has only one stop on the north UT campus. I came out of my building, saw the bus turn onto the campus, and started running for the stop (thus proving my sincerity). On this campus, there's one wide boulevard-type street with zero traffic on weekends, like today, hardly anyone around. As I was running, I waved frantically at the driver of the bus since I wasn't going to make it to the stop before he got there --- he intentionally ignored me and drove on. (As I said, he was driving down a wide, unpopulated campus street. Drivers have stopped many times before. He chose to be a dick.) So today: One extra-nice driver, one extra-dick. I don't want to have to rely on either.
(2) You're at the mercy of the passengers. Waiting for the bus on my way to my hair appointment, a large sweaty white guy with his bike struck up a conversation: What was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen on a bus? Boy, did I have some stories to tell! I told them: Creeps falling asleep on my shoulder, creeps reading out loud over my shoulder, creeps aggressively panhandling, creeps verbally abusing students (and me), creeps going on about their sex lives, etc. This guy was just striking up an innocent conversation while trying to pick me up. Turns out he had just moved to Austin from Luling, was trying to find work. I shut down his come-on with "Luling---my first girlfriend was from Gonzalez, right near there!" (After that, he wasn't so gauche as to discontinue the conversation entirely, but, still, his conversational ardor was dampened.)
(3) What else? Oh, I was sopping wet with sweat by the time I arrived (late) at my hair appointment. On the way from the hair place to work, while waiting at the stop, a sudden rain storm struck, so I was sopping wet again. On the way home from work, a crazy shrivelled middle-aged Indian woman moved to sit right next to two young Chinese students and asked them repeatedly: "Are you illegal? Are you illegal? Why are you here? What kind of visa do you have?"
Interesting, perhaps. But... no, not really. I'm too old for all of the shit. I want to be removed from it.
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