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| "The Metro doesn't care about poor people." |
I take the Metro bus, which runs from Lakewood to the dirty ghettos of Los Angeles. Bus fare recently went up to $1.50 from the long-lasted fare of $1.25. I take the bus four times a day; two buses going to school, two buses coming home. So, hmm, let me calculate that:
$1.50 x 4 = $6 a day?!
So wait, I take the bus five times a week. Therefore my grand total for fare per
week would be $30. Run that over a course of five weeks for the month and that's… $150. What the HELL? That's a grocery bill, an entire outfit, a day at the salon, or, I don't know, a CAR NOTE? Sure, it'd be a cheap car, but I seriously could pay some kind of car note for that amount of money.
You get a serious discount if you get a bus pass. Monthly bus passes cost $70, $20 if you opt for weekly. $20 a week is gas, if you're driving a basic car locally. $70 a month could fill a gas tank and an entire cupboard of Cup O' Noodles for a starving college student.
Even though it really is a discount, that's not the issue. And I know the obvious question is, "Uhh, what about student bus passes?" Now that's my issue. A student monthly bus pass costs an easy $30. That's way beyond affordable to be taking four buses a day, 20 buses a week, 100 buses a month. The hard part is actually getting the student discount.
First and foremost, you need the application. Luckily, my school has the transportation applications at the front desk of the office. But if they didn't, I would have to contact Metro Corporation and ask them to send me one via U.S. Mail. I mean, really? Do we not live in 2010 where Internet connection can be found at a homeless shelter? Why use U.S. Mail for that crap?
After you finally get the application, you fill out all the information, school included. They want the basics, like your full name and address, the name and address of your school, your phone number, everyday things like that. But they also want:
- a photo copy of your state I.D
- a copy of your school I.D
- a print-out from the school verifying full-time enrollment
- a letter from the dean
- five reasons why you feel you are eligible
- a copy of monthly expenses
- a copy of your light bill
- and a midget and three balloons.
This isn't a luxury charter bus to the Vegas Strip. It's a city bus filled with bums, freaks, and crying babies. Not to mention, it's a $1 fee just to send the application! And, it has to be made out in a money order. Do you have any idea how hard the people at the check cashing place laughed when I asked for a money order for a dollar?
When you finally have all required items just to send the damn thing out, there is still a 20-day waiting period for verification. Then they make your student card, and then you still have to wait for it to come in the mail. Wouldn't it make much more sense to just show your student I.D. at the place you get bus passes, and have them give you a student pass? Probably! But no, Metro wants you to jump through five hoops of fire to get a discount of $40. I wonder what crackhead screwed up the application process for all the other students.
The process is so irritating that it makes you wanna go ahead and pay $70 a month. But what are they really doing with all the money they get from fare and bus passes? They're not putting it towards any cities that they drive through, which is evident by the way it looks. They're certainly not putting it towards maintenance of the buses, because one of my buses broke down twice last week. If anybody had money to afford bus fare like that, then they would have a car. After taking the same buses for almost two months, I've come to the conclusion that all the people who ride the bus are BROKE.
Getting a job sounds like the obvious solution, doesn't it? I go to school Monday through Friday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. I'd have to get a job working from 6 a.m., and get off at 12:00 p.m. just to have to turn around and go to school. It would take probably a solid two weeks for me to die from exhaustion. Then the money would be wasted for the extra two weeks I have before my bus pass expires, because I'm dead. I can't even get a car until I have a job to pay for my insurance.
Charging that amount of money to take a bus that's always late is robbery in my opinion. Next time the driver slams on the breaks at a stop light, I'm gonna allow myself to fly to the front of the bus and get hurt. Maybe then I'll be able to afford a monthly pass.
