Commuting 2

Kvetch 3

Monday, September 10, 2012

Well, here I am again complaining about commuting - trust me there is going to be a long chain of blogs about commuting. I was actually going to create a blog dedicated to complaining about just commuting. So the second thing I hate about commuting is the mismanagement of the bus order. Okay so here is the background. In PA (Port Authority for those of you who did not read my last post) the way the terminals are set up is there are 3 gates at each terminal, this means that 3 buses leave from each terminal. The terminal is shaped like a long rectangle with 3 doors opening on the left side of the length of the rectangle - let's call these terminals A, B and C (.A being the terminal at the bottom of the rectangle and C being the one at the end heading into the Lincoln Tunnel)  Now the efficient way to make sure that everyone gets home on time without having to wait excessively in the sweltering heat because -  did I mention - there is NO air conditioning, is to have the buses lined up so that C is the first, B is the middle and A is the last. The buses should come in that order and when A is finally done loading and heading off, the next bus to pull up should be, once again, C. But NO, in PA it gos A, A, B, A, B, C, C, C, A etc. You catch my drift. So there we are waiting in the heat for bus C to pull up but there is a B blocking it and you want to pull your hair out!Because not only is your bus being blocked but 3 buses have already passed by and none of them were yours. Finally, the end is in sight but you have to stand there and wait because the guy at the back of the bus station who dispatches doesn't know his A, B, Cs.

Commuting

Kvetch 2

Saturday, August 25, 2012

I like my job, yes, I really do! No pressure... I work with wonderful people... I like the work I do - about the job itself I really don't have any complaints. This is my third job since I started to really work (and by that I mean get a salary and not paid by hour) and I finally LIKE IT! But there is one thing that is killing me - commuting! I hate commuting, no let me restate that, I hate NJ Transit and the NJ Transit bus. If there has ever been a more mismanaged institution - aside from the US government of course -  I would like to see it. Well, actually, I wouldn't like to see it but getting on with my kvetch. OK so where shall I begin? Why don't I like NJ Transit you may ask yourself, well for one there is no air conditioning. The New Jersey Transit Bus Station is one of the vendors that works out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PA) in Manhattan. What PA tries to do is make the bus station like a mini mall - they have stores, places to eat, a bowling alley etc. So don't get me wrong, in the main area where people shop, there is definitely air conditioning - people want you to spend money. However, to get home you have NO CHOICE. It is either PA or nothing. So why should PA waste the money and actually air condition the terminals? The answer is ..... they shouldn't so they don't. However, they want people to believe there IS air conditioning so they ingeniously installed .... VENTS - that blow NO air! So there you are after a long tiring day of work - standing online in a small stuffy terminal in the middle of the summer with NO AIR CONDITIONING being comforted by the thought that at least PA has the potential to decrease the temperature.