Public Transit Proletariat
Traveling around DC the last week, followed by traveling around here in Durham this week to get things done, had me thinking about the obvious and less obvious differences between the big city and a suburban town. For example, it is normal to see well-dressed people traveling on the bus or metro in big cities (even if many still drive around, especially those of the top percent earners), and many who would never think twice of riding a public transit in a big city would balked at doing so in a small town, especially those below the Mason-Dixon line.
In Durham, NC, a suburban town, one would hardly see university students on the buses, as most have their own cars to drive around (or they prefer to take cabs or use the Zipcar or, for Duke, the newly introduced WeCar that is a dollar more expensive). Very few of the middle-class or the aspiring middle class really comprehend the workings of a public transport system in Southern suburban towns. I remember having to find things out for myself as nobody I knew, when I first moved to Durham 3.5 years ago, had ever taken the public bus. I was reminded of an episode of the Kardashians that I’d, unfortunately, watched (I had no inkling who these sisters were at the time) who were taking the subway in NYC for the first time, having never been on a public transport their entire lives until adulthood). Prior to moving to the States, I’d been driving around Malaysia for more than a decade, though I still took the public transit now and then to save on gas and parking. Unfortunately, the city I moved to for college and which I stayed on was not very bike friendly so I never thought about purchasing a bike until after moving here, to a small town that was not bike friendly for quite a long time until fairly recently, where measures are taken towards that end. Incidentally, the college town of Chapel Hill is completely opposite to Durham, being both bike-friendly while also possessing a more organized town bus system that are taken by the UNC-Chapel Hill students who were of a different variety from the Duke students.
Granted, the old bus system in Durham used to be a real pain(and it has only improved a bit more recently). Buses never came when they were supposed to and you never know when the next one you are waiting for will come. I used to take the bus here once or twice a semester since 2008. However, since late last year, with the introduction of the free downtown circulating bus, I’d started using the bus to downtown a lot more (though I sometimes also prefer to bike, if I don’t happen to be able to hitch a ride). I did not use the town bus that circulates all over Durham, or even the Triangle Transit (that connects between the 3 major towns of the Research Triangle), since early last May until this week, when the need to attend to an appointment for three consecutive days rendered it necessary for me to do so. I went for the first appointment in a car, having rented a car for 24 hours to do some shopping, visiting, and chores that included acquiring a GoPass from my university’s transportation office that will enable me to use all the buses in town and the Triangle area for free. I was spurred to do that after taking the town bus back from the terminal to home upon arriving there from DC on an inter-state bus. Being stingy, I didn’t like to keep spending on Zipcars and suchlikes, or on cabs, unless absolutely necessary (unlike a majority of my compatriots living here who own cars, I’d given up on the idea of buying my own car until I graduate or when it becomes absolutely necessary, due to financial instability and the desire to save whatever money I have for more worthwhile purposes). While at the bus terminal, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Durham’s Transit Authority have installed an electronic information system, not unlike what you usually see around Europe in cities and also at metro stations around the world, that will inform the passenger when the bus they are waiting for will arrive. Of course, as of now, there is still much room for improvement, especially in coordinating between buses and time, but things have certainly looked up.
However, one can see that there has not necessarily been the widening of the spectrum of people who take buses, other than perhaps the commuters around the Triangle or the occasional student who actually does not own a car (or have friends who can drive them around all the time). Moreover, many of those who take the buses to work are the bottom-feeders of society, underpaid for their hard labor, or are probably facing hard times, as their demeanor suggest even as some manage to stay cheerful. Some school children (usually non-whites) would use the bus system during the holidays to get around (while middle-class suburban kids, the majority of whom are white as well as Asian, usually get ferried around, the lower-middle to working class that consist mainly of blacks, Hispanic and Latino/Latina kids find their ways around the public transport system). This being the festive period, many boarded the bus to go shopping at the malls nearest to their neighborhood (though some may venture slightly further). Sometimes, one can tell that the bus has not arrived but will be arriving soon when one sees many others waiting at the same stop. When one of the buses I boarded stopped inexplicably for a long time at what seem to be ‘the middle of nowhere,’ I chatted to the only other passenger on the bus to find out the reason and was given a lesson on the bus system and scheduling from an obvious veteran who also owns a car. I found that most buses only come by a stop every half hour, though this varies by the hour and depends quite on the stop (sometimes, one can wait for a long time at a stop near a shopping mall only because most of the people who shop there had driven over to shop). I had waited for buses ranging between less than a minute to the region of more than an hour (I found I finished reading a paper and was partially through the second while waiting for that bus that kept me waiting for more than an hour). I am fine when I can read, think or am in no hurry to get to the bathroom. If it is the latter third or if I’ve developed a headache, I become cranky and peevish. One does not go anywhere on public transport without bringing something or having something to keep one occupied, though, for someone who does not drive around much, or who do not get to see much of the town, going around on different buses is also the occasion for ‘sight-seeing.’ In taking buses to shops outside of my pretty middle-class neighborhood that also happen to be not too far from the ‘inner-city’, I could see the differences in the target consumers based on the type of goods on offer, the selection of goods, presentation of goods (there are some ‘classy’ goods that demonstrate upward mobility aspirations of those who have not quite made it to comfortable middle-class), and the price ranges on offer. The same goes for services. Of course, one could faint from the chemical fumes in a nail spa parlor targeted at the lower economic classes while those of the ‘classier’ class will go to one with smells and sounds of ‘nature.’
People tell me cars are cheap and that fuel is even cheaper. Having driven around on rentals where I had to top up, I choose to differ. If cars and fuel were that cheap, we will not see people who consistently take buses to work and to shop in small towns (and these are not all senior citizens who can no longer drive), though the convenience of the public transit was never in their favor. We live in a society of people who take self-autonomy to the extreme (one of the reason in most parts of the unenlightened West, public transit is underdeveloped). This has a lot to do with the idea of capital, self-reliance and convenience (it is a society that wants things fast and wants things to be convenient, except on ‘Black Fridays’) and is willing to pay a lot of money for that, even if it means going bankrupt. Many foreigners who came to live in the US as students, migrant laborers and professionals have also begun to imbibe the same attitude, to whatever limits afforded them. This is especially prevalent among those living in the south and the interior. One understands too that owning cars is a necessity in many even smaller towns than Durham, or some big cities, where public transit is ever more complicated, unreliable or non-existent.
However, riding the public transit takes you out of the bubble you live in. You see real people whose lives are affected by the decisions made for them and also by the way in which their environment is structured. If you are a writer, artist, musician or scholar, you find new material between those seats and in the scene outside the window you probably have no time to properly savor while zipping past in a car. You get to observe the stories told between the lines and creases on the faces, through passing conversation made in the bus and even from over-hearing the conversation taking place. Some buses also offer WIFI connection for those who want to check emails but do not own a smartphone. While I did not quite enjoy the overly-long train rides from Durham to DC most of the time (thought I’ve seen discovered quicker alternatives to DC, I hope to take the train again to some other places), I had begun to learn to enjoy the time when I could look out of the train window to see the stations of small towns I probably will never get to without a real reason. I read the history that was not yet written; or that are not written in words through the human and natural artifacts I see.
The past two days, having been on the bus for as much as I have of late, I became acutely aware of the sound of the buses passing outside my apartment in an otherwise usually quiet street. In this season of celebration and the holidays, we should remember those whose lives do not involve packing in boxes of gifts into overloaded SUVs, or planning a holiday trip somewhere. Some will be working their shifts, some just could not afford to really ‘enjoy’ the season that seems to become increasingly about spending and buying new things. If you have never taken a bus in a small town anywhere, this is your time to do so, and be aware of your fellow passengers.
