Bus riding prejudice

If there is one thing that really bothers me is prejudice. When I see it or sense it, I want to go to bat against it. I never really considered myself to be prejudiced, but in so many ways we are, and we don't realize it. When my car came up with a blown head gasket, my daughter, who lives in Chicago, took a look at the transit system on the Internet while we were talking on the phone. She said I had a good system with a lot of bus options around me. 

  

Where I live I am only about a half of a mile from anything I need. My daughter's a nurse and she said it would be good for me to walk more. So I can walk there. The bus could get me to places I needed to go and enjoy, such as going downtown, Barnes and Noble bookstore, the library and other places of interest to me. I thought about it and decided to try it. Mainly based on her recommendation.

Back to the prejudice issue...

I remember one day, as I was walking back to my place, I saw these folks waiting at a bus stop for the bus. As I got closer, I thought, "poor folks... only have the bus to get them around."  Then I caught myself. I am one of those folks. It dawned on me I am prejudice too. Never thought I was.  

My neighbor rides the bus to work everyday. And she feels that there is a bus prejudice by people in businesses and community. This became apparent to me again about a week after my car's head gasket blew. I had to meet a client. So I took a bus to the meeting. As we visited I mentioned about my car. He immediately questioned, "you took the bus here?" It was like I had hit bottom in my life or something in his mind. He looked at me in a condescending surprise. There is a negative perception by some.
It was then, I decided to check this out and do what I can do to change this mindset. Which is one reason behind why I decided to create this blog. 

There are obvious benefits of using public transit and some misconceptions that need to be reformed. The bus culture is not weird or threatening. It can actually be a lot of fun. As I implied in my tag line to this blog... it's a great opportunity to learn enlarging a person's life, "world view" and improve our abilities to be effective with a variety of people. 

It is my hope that what I do here will remove this prejudice, increase interest in using public transportation, remove people's fears, educate others on how it works,  create interest and intrigue to becoming part of the bus culture.    And to impress on the bus drivers the importance of their role in how they affect people's self-identity while increasing patron use by how the drivers express their personality, their manner.  From a marketing perspective, the drivers are the brand. They will draw more into using public transportation, more than anything else.  Also, I hope to provide insight to those who administer public transit to advance the system to appeal to a larger representation of the community.  And above all, eradicate the perception some have toward the bus system as being a lower form of transportation. When in fact it's efficient, money-saving, fun, life enhancing and just a smart way to get around.