From Hamilton, New Zealand: " 'Flasher' causes bus to hit police station." (The New Zealand Herald)

The alleged flasher being blamed for a bus crash in Hamilton is just 14-years-old.

Police say the teenager exposed himself to a fellow bus passenger, causing the terrified woman to scream. (Read more here.)

From Sydney, Australia: "Sydney drivers decorate buses for Christmas."

From Cambridge, England: "Council ridiculed over bus lane error." (The Telegraph)

Photo by MASONS 

(Read more here.)

Busboy's P.S. The original Telegraph headline misspelled “ridiculed.” Given the current correction, irony must not have been intended.

From NYC: "Spoof MTA service ‘announcements’ get big draw on Twitter," by Heather Haddon

This story originally appeared on AMNewYork at this address: http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/spoof-mta-service-announcements-get-big-draw-on-twitter-1.1628071. This link no longer works. A copy of the original story appears below.


Twitter has some useful advice for straphangers trying to navigate service disruptions.

“For Queens-bound service, transfer at (Queensboro Plaza) to a friends’ car or abandoned bike.”

A thread of satirical subway “announcements” has quickly gotten hot on Twitter, with nearly 2,000 people following “Fake MTA” since its launch two weeks ago.

Written by two bitingly sarcastic transit buffs, the tweets at twitter.com/FakeMTA spoof everything from L train hipsters to inaudible subway announcements in a lingo the parodies agency announcements. Recent tweets included:

“If passengers don’t move all the way into the car, the C train is going to turn around and go home”

“Beginning Dec. 3, 1-day Fun Passes will be restricted to lines serving designated ‘fun’ areas of the city”

“MTA to hold first annual Thanksgiving Rat Shoot: Nov. 25, all Lower East Side stations”

The tweet’s authors, Josh Oswald and Reed Jackson, wanted to use Twitter for an ironic project of some sort, and chose transit because of its universal impact on New Yorkers.

“Everybody knows it intimately. It’s like an 8 million person inside joke,” said Oswald, 29, who works in publishing with Jackson.

“Fake MTA” is updated several times a day. Future topics include the MTA’s budgetary woes and city buses, which Oswald characterized as “terrifying” and “mysterious.”

Benjamin Kabak, who writes the popular Second Avenue Subway blog, said the feed does a good job capturing rider sentiment. “They have a great sense of irreverence,” Kabak said.

A MTA spokesman declined comment.

From Berlin: "Once in a black and blue moon... " (Reuters)

A German man mooning at railway staff in a departing train got his trousers caught in a carriage door and ended up being dragged half naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks. (Read more here.)

From Atlanta: "MARTA bus driver suspended for insisting passengers pray," by Mashuan D. Simon for the Atlanta Constitution

A MARTA bus driver has been suspended after insisting that his riders hold hands and pray with him before getting off the bus. (Read more here.)

From San Diego: "Metropolitan Transit System Honors Veterans." (SDMTS)

The Metropolitan Transit System celebrated Veterans Day on November 11 by donating 200 rides on the Trolley to servicemen and women on their way to holiday activities. (Read more here.)

From Boston: "Bus driver honored for kindness," by Noah Bierman

Bus driver Eddie Earle didn’t think he was doing anything special Thursday morning when he pulled his bus over, got out, and escorted a blind passenger across the street. (Read more here.)

From Albuquerque! "SUV pinned by city bus after crash." (KRQE News video)

[Video from the bus did confirm the driver of the SUV was clearly at fault.]

From Albuquerque! "Bus driver fired for hitting pedestrian." (KRQE News video)

From Seattle: "Eastbound 14 (et al) stop, 5th & Jackson," by Carla Saulter

A 60-ish, somewhat disheveled man approaches and addresses me in several languages (Amharic, Spanish, Italian) trying to figure out which I speak. We finally settle on a mix of French and English, and (thanks to my growing belly) immediately start talking parenthood. He tells me I remind him of his daughter, who was recently married. "It was in the New York Times," he says, fishing a crumpled piece of newsprint out of his wallet. (Read more here.)

From Cleveland: "Former RTA bus driver was talking on cell phone when pedestrian was struck and killed, prosecutor says," by Donna J. Miller

The former RTA bus driver who killed a pedestrian in March was on her cell phone when she struck the man in a crosswalk in downtown Cleveland, prosecutors said. (Read more here.)

From Honolulu: "City Council scrubs body-odor proposal," by B.J. Reyes

A proposal that raised a stink nationwide over an apparent attempt to criminalize body odor on public buses has been shelved by the City Council. (Read more here.)

From London: "Paul McCartney Uses The Bus!" (Showbiz Spy)

Paul McCartney might be worth hunderds of millions of dollars, but he still likes to use the bus!

The Beatles legend says it makes him feel “grounded” when he travels incognito on public transport. (Read more here.)

From London: "Dead passenger goes unnoticed on London bus for six hours." (The Telegraph)

A dead bus passenger was driven around London after staff failed to the spot his body for more than six hours, an inquest heard. (Read more here.)

From Tokyo: "Men-only train cars sought in groping fears," by Yoko Kubota

Many women taking the crowded train in Tokyo opt for women-only carriages during the rush hour to avoid gropers.

Now, for fear of being accused of groping, some are asking for carriages reserved for men as well. (Read more here.)



From Laguna Niguel, California: "A Mooning Festival Is Something The Mayor Just Can't Get Behind," by Sarah McBride

The biggest event of the year in Laguna Niguel, Calif., is coming up on Saturday, but Mayor Robert Ming has a message for those planning to attend: Keep your pants on. (Read more here.)

From North Laudersale, Florida: "Michael Jackson's death sparks Florida bus brawl." (Reuters)

A fight broke out on a Florida bus when news of Michael Jackson's death sparked debate over whether he should be remembered as a great musical talent, and one passenger was charged with assault, police said on Friday. (Read more here.)

From Portland, Oregon: "Bus poetry nearing end of the line," by Anna Griffin

Slowly, surely and sadly, the poetry is disappearing from my bus. I'm not speaking in metaphors. The views on the ride downtown from the east side are still lovely enough most days to inspire a little free verse. But the poetry is going away, on my route and yours. (Read more here.)

From the U.S.A.: "Unescorted Prisoners Take the Bus." (Parade Magazine)

Thanks to a little-known policy at the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the guy sitting next to you on the bus could be a convicted felon. As part of a cost-cutting program, the BOP allows more than 25,000 prisoners each year to ride unescorted and unannounced between federal correctional facilities. At least 50 have escaped, including a drug dealer who is now considered armed and dangerous. (Read more here.)

From Chattanooga, Tennessee: "New Policy Banning Cell Phone for Bus Drivers Starts Monday." (WRCB)

You may not ride them, but you share the roads with Carta buses.

And come Monday, a new policy goes into effect to keep your family safer.

It's one of the stricter policies in this state, telling bus drivers to leave their cell phones at home or they could be out of a job. (Read more here.)

From San Antonio: "Caught on Tape: VIA drivers texting while driving." (WOAI video report by Brian Collister)

From Glasgow: " You parliamo Glasgow? Bus driver learns Polish to teach workmates the local lingo," by Alastar Dalton

It is Glasgow's unique tongue – unintelligible to many native English speakers, let alone the city's burgeoning population of east European immigrants.

Now, a Scottish bus company has taken steps to teach their Polish drivers "the Patter" to help them understand their passengers, in the vein of Stanley Baxter's famous Parliamo Glasgow sketches.



Phrases such as "Geezan aw day tae the toon" (“May I have an all day ticket to town”) and “Wanan'a hauf please" ("One and a child please") are frequently heard on the city's buses. (Read more here.)

From Seattle: "Metro rolls out big red RapidRide bus design," by Aubrey Cohen

King County Metro Transit rolled out sleek new buses for its planned RapidRide routes Monday and announced $13.8 million in new federal funding to help the service start next year.

"This is a transit-happy city," Matthew Welbes, executive director and acting deputy administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, said in front of the new red-and-yellow, articulated bus Monday morning. (Read more here.)

From Bridgeport, Connecticut: "Solar-powered bus stop makes Earth Day debut," by John Burgeson

This story originally appeared the Connecticut Post website, ConnPost.Com, at this address:
http://www.connpost.com/ci_12190054. This link no longer exists. A copy of the original story appears below.


In conjunction with Earth Day, Greater Bridgeport Transit is rolling out its first solar-powered bus stop. While some might think that "powered" and "bus stop" don't belong in the same sentence, transit officials say there's a need to power bus stops ---- to provide illumination for riders on gloomy nights.

But it's impractical to wire up bus stops to the power grid because trenching wire conduits is costly, and over time, stops are moved from one intersection to the next. Then there's the matter of paying the light bill.

Enter the latest trend on the public transit scene -- the solar-powered bus stop. Called the "i-Stop" by its manufacturer, Carmanah Technologies of Victoria, B.C., the units sell for about $1,400 each and have been purchased by more than 80 transit districts in such places as London, Miami, Atlanta and Orange County, Calif.

Some school districts have shown interest in the units, too.

"This is a test," said Ron Kilcoyne, CEO of Greater Bridgeport Transit. "We wanted to see how it worked before we make a major investment in the units."

At Park Avenue and Atlantic Street in the South End, the "i-Stop" bus stop illuminates the area after daylight hours by using stored solar energy.

Kilcoyne said the i-Stop is best suited to bus stops that see a fair amount of passenger traffic at night. They should be particularly useful in the late fall and winter, when both early morning and evening commutes occur in the dark.

"The worst thing to do is to get something like this and find out that it requires a lot of maintenance, or that the riders or the drivers don't like them for some reason," he said.

GBT has about 1,450 bus stops in all. Of these, about 50 stops have shelters, and GBT hopes to have an additional 30 to 50 shelters in place over the coming months.

The 12-foot-tall i-Stop unit has two buttons. One turns on the light to illuminate the stop for a few minutes. The second activates an LED light that flashes in the direction of an approaching bus to signal the driver to stop. The i-Stop's lights are powered by a battery that builds up electricity throughout the day from a solar cell mounted on top. Carmanah also sells a solar-powered bus shelter that the company calls "i-Panel." Doug Holcomb, the transit agency's planning and service development officer, said the GBT is looking into purchasing a few of the i-Panel shelters, too.

Also to celebrate Earth Day, the transit agency Wednesday will be handing out tree saplings, T-shirts and reusable shopping bags made from recycled materials at the Water Street bus terminal. The T-shirt was designed by local artist Jack Tom working from his studio in the Read's Artspace Building in downtown Bridgeport.

"Giving the T-shirts, saplings and shopping bags is a way for us to help our riders be green and say 'thank you' to them for taking the bus," Kilcoyne said.

From Boston: "As train approaches, bystanders leap onto tracks to assist man," by Milton J. Valencia

She noticed nothing unusual until she heard a thump, and the man with a large duffle bag was no longer standing on the platform. He had fallen on the train tracks and become unconscious, and all Mimi T. Lai could do was look for help. (Read more here.)

From Madison, Wisconsin: "Atheists' group, church battling with bus signs. (Associated Press)

An atheists' group and a church are taking their rivalry on the road, using ad space on Madison Transit buses to display their competing messages. The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is spending $2,100 on six signs appearing for up to two months inside 50 buses. Each sign has a quotation questioning religion or giving reasons for not believing. (Read more here.)

From Houston: "Move It: An inside look at a Metro bus commute," by Rosanna Ruiz

After riding 14 Metro buses over five days, it would be a stretch to describe myself as an expert rider.

Vast portions of Metro’s service area remain foreign territory. But my editor’s intention when he suggested I ride the bus was to see what regular riders go through every day.(Read more here.)

From Philadelphia: "Philly transit agency sells pass with NYC photo." (Associated Press)

You might feel a little lost if you've bought a discount pass sold by Philadelphia's primary mass transit agency — it features a picture of New York City. (Read more here.)

From NYC: "8 Million Stories: Bus Justice" [a Top Ten Bus Stories nominee], by Andrew Tavani (New York Press)

This story originally appeared at nypress.com at this address: http://www.nypress.com/article-19453-8-million-stories-bus-justice.html. This link no longer exists. A copy of the original story appears below. 


Trust me. Even though the M96 won the 2008 Pokey Award—a dubious honor presented to the most sloth-like bus in the city—and has been unable to stay on schedule for…maybe forever, the bus once took me someplace I thought I might never go.

One evening, I boarded at West 96th and Amsterdam, early in the bus’ cross-town route, and luckily got a seat around the midsection of the bus, which was pretty much standing-room only. As if the glacial pace at which the bus made its way east wasn’t painful enough, for some reason that evening, the M96 took a detour, headed down Central Park West to 86th Street and crossed through the park. Apart from the detour and the crowd, it was shaping up as a typical, uneventful bus ride.

Things changed suddenly, though, when the bus exited the Park and crossed Fifth Avenue. A black guy sitting toward the front on the driver’s side, who had been calm and anonymous till then, stood up, looked menacingly at a white guy standing in front of him and launched into an incoherent diatribe, the theme of which was about being overworked and underpaid. 

“Hey asshole, join the club!” I felt like shouting to him; but I didn’t have the balls to do it. I wasn’t a real New Yorker. I was a transplant who grew up in a polite Pennsylvania suburb and moved to the city in late 1999 to work in TV. A guy in his late twenties, the only New York I knew was the touchy-feely, post- Giuliani Apple. 



At first, the white guy looked confused since the verbal assault was unprovoked. He gave the disgruntled dude a look like, “Are you talking to me?” And not the Travis Bickle “Are you talking to me?” look; I mean the, “Are you talking to me…or the guy behind me,” kind of look. It was unclear who his fulmination was directed at due to its magnificent incoherence. After a moment, the first man raised his voice and lurched closer to the white guy. “I’m gonna fuckin’ kick some ass!” he announced, finally articulating a meaningful sentence. With that, a look came over the white guy’s face that suggested, perhaps, he was contemplating kicking some ass. 

Meanwhile, the bus crawled along to its stops and the driver did his best to stay poised and not squash any pedestrians. A few people got off here and there, but most people were waiting for the bus to resume its route along 96th Street. Everyone was riveted by the drama unfolding. But, as entertaining as it was to witness a performance ripped from an episode of Law & Order, there was something ominous about the way the provocateur was clutching a messenger back slung over his shoulder and a paper shopping bag. 

Despite the baiting, the white guy kept his cool and the furious guy lost interest in him, so he turned and addressed the people holding the bar for balance. Obscenities continued flying, and his babble became even less intelligible. The chrome bar offered no response to the lunatic. For a minute, the situation looked like it was diffusing—until the guy finally noticed he wasn’t getting any reaction. 

He then turned and faced a diminutive weary Latino man, dressed in a shirt and tie, who was standing a few feet away. The rabble rouser didn’t mince words. He hurled racially charged invective at the Latino guy and began punching his fist, like some greaser from The Outsiders readying himself for a throw-down. The Latino guy stood calm, seemingly unfazed.The crazy guy once again repeated that he was going to “kick [his] fucking ass!” 

No response. 

The Latino guy was a silent pillar of self-control. 



And then the malcontent tilted his head, looked deep into the Latino guy’s eyes, dramatic pause and all, and asked, “What are you going to do about it, faggot?” This was intriguing: Rather than transporting its passengers swiftly eastward, I realized, the M96 had become a time machine that transported us to the old-school, politically incorrect NYC I’d only read about—a city complete with bad manners and violence. 



An incredulous look flashed across the unflappable Latino guy’s face. The bus came to its next stop, and the driver opened the front door. The Latino guy sprang into action, grabbing the bigger man by the throat. To the surprise of the passengers, and with the panache of The Caped Crusader, he threw the insane guy out the front door of the bus. The guy tumbled into the street, his belongings spilled onto the blacktop. The passengers erupted in a catharsis of cheers and tension-relieving laughter. The little man knelt down, picked up a bag the ejected man had dropped, stood up and tossed it out the door where it smacked the guy—who was still lying on the blacktop—in the head. 

I gazed out the window at the guy on the ground trying to orient himself to his new bearings and the fact that a few of his of teeth were on the street. 

People on the bus grabbed our savior, congratulated him and said he had done enough. Our hero was exalted and inundated with high-fives and handshakes, even a hug or two for dealing a dose of “bus justice.” As the bus justice hero strode by me, I nodded at him and said, “Congratulations, buddy,” feeling like I’d finally been baptized a true New Yorker.

From Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: "Tax credit sought for public transit users," by Brad Bumsted

Two Allegheny County lawmakers want to give Port Authority riders a $100-per-year credit on state income taxes for using mass transit. (Read more here.)

From Albuquerque! "Transit driver rescues ill woman," by Tim Maestas

This story originally appeared on KRQE.com at this address: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/health/health_krqe_albuquerque_transit_driver_rescues_ill_woman_200902041745. This link no longer exists. A copy of the original story appears below.


A city transit driver may have saved the life of an elderly woman discovered early Wednesday passed out and bleeding inside her northwest Albuquerque apartment.

Geneva Chavez, 81, was listed in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon.

“I just hope she’s doing OK,” transit driver Pat Gurulé told KRQE News 13. “Paramedics and all responded fairly quickly.”

Gurulé works for Sun Van, a division of ABQ Ride that provides para-transit service to people with medical disabilities.

Chavez usually waited outside for the Sun Van that pulled in to pick her up three times a week to take her for dialysis, Gurulé said. But Wednesday morning she wasn’t there.

“I waited a couple of minutes, and her neighbor came out,” Gurulé said.

Minutes after he pulled up at the apartment complex, one of Chavez’s neighbors went to check on her. “The door was open so I just walked in, because I knew something was wrong,” neighbor Liz Walters said. “She was laying on the floor.”

Chavez was bleeding on her living room floor, added Walters who stayed with her friend and neighbor until Gurulé showed up at the front door.

“At that time we definitely determined she needed medical attention,” Gurulé said. He contacted ABQ Ride dispatchers who then called 911.

City Transit Director Greg Payne told KRQE News 13, Gurulé went above and beyond the call of duty.

“We have people who no-show, or miss their appointments for their rides all the time,” Payne said. “For Pat to really take the interest to find out what was going on speaks well of him as a driver, and we couldn’t be more proud.” Gurulé has driven for Sun Van for 14 years, but Wednesday morning’s emergency situation was a first, he said. Asked if she was glad Gurulé was there, Walters replied, “Oh God yes.”
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/health/health_krqe_albuquerque_transit_driver_rescues_ill_woman_200902041745

From Bangkok: "Sorry I’m 25 years late - I got on the wrong bus," by Andrew Drummond

It was just a normal shopping trip when Jaeyana Beuraheng bade farewell to her eight children as she left to cross the border into Malaysia. But it would be 25 years before she would find her way home. (Read more here.)

From Boston: "Barely Legal," by Matt Donnelly

Legal Sea Foods' longtime slogan declares, "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal." Perhaps the restaurant company should be thinking about changing that. Say, to "If it's making sexual advances from the side of a trolley, the MBTA doesn't think it's legal." (Read more here.)

From Minneapolis: "My bus hottie," by Sarah

My husband and I met on the 134 when we were both commuting from Highland Park to downtown [Minneapolis]. Most people keep to themselves on this commuter route, and I certainly didn’t have the guts to speak to him. For about a year, I called him my bus hottie and would occassionally fill my friends in on sightings. (Read more here.)

From Moscow: Bendy bus out of control in a tunnel (video)

Bendy bus out of control in a tunnel.

From Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England: "Dog-lead goths 'hounded off bus' " (BBC News)

A goth who leads his girlfriend around with a dog lead and collar was stopped from getting on a bus amid fears for passenger safety, a bus firm confirmed. (Read more here.)

From Irving, Texas: "Life After Texas Stadium," by Brandon Formby

This story originally appeared on the Mass Transit website via the Dallas Morning News at this address: http://www.masstransitmag.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=7654&pageNum=1. This link no longer exists, nor does a Google search turn up the original Dallas Morning News article. A copy of the original story appears below.


Texas Stadium introduced the city of Irving to the world.

Steady appearances on television during football games and the opening sequence of the hit drama Dallas kept the iconic structure in the public eye for decades. And the city focused its sales pitch over the years to make sure people knew the famous structure belonged to Irving, not Dallas.

But the team is moving to Arlington next season. And the stadium will soon be demolished to pave the way for development.

Where does that leave Irving?

Right where city officials want it to be.

"I kind of look forward to it," Irving City Council member Lewis Patrick said of the stadium's end. He was the city's public works director when the stadium was being built in the late 1960s. "It's not saddening or anything. It's just the way it's going."

After all, clearing the stadium site is key to much of what Irving envisions for its future. A bevy of construction projects and transportation upgrades are on the horizon - including what's believed to be the largest collection of transit-oriented developments in the nation.

Many of those projects are the result of a 1996 election. Irving voters chose to continue putting tax dollars into Dallas Area Rapid Transit rather than toward Texas Stadium renovations that arguably could have kept the team in Irving.

DART plans to build a light-rail line that will run through Irving, connecting Dallas to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The Orange Line will have several stops along the way. Among them are planned stations at the stadium site, the University of Dallas, North Lake College and three spots in Las Colinas' urban center. An outlet mall is planned for land just north of where the stadium sits.

And surrounding the planned Las Colinas stops, officials and developers want to replicate the success of Dallas projects such as Mockingbird Station and West Village - but on a much larger scale. They're planning several projects that will create pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhoods made up of homes, offices, retail outlets and entertainment venues.

The city also is building a convention center and working with a developer to build an adjacent entertainment complex in Las Colinas within walking distance to a rail station.

"Obviously Texas Stadium is an iconic building," said Brenda McDonald, the city's real estate and development director. "But Irving has a lot of iconic buildings. If you look at the Las Colinas urban center, it's second to none. And we're building a convention center there that will be an iconic building."

The first phase of the rail line will run to Las Colinas and is set to open December 2011. As construction of the rail gets ready to begin, Texas Department of Transportation officials have a renovation project of their own - redoing the interchange of highways that played a role in Irving snagging Texas Stadium in the first place.

State transportation officials and the city are working on an agreement that will allow the state to rent the stadium site from Irving for the next decade at an estimated cost of $15 million. The land will be used as the staging area for the massive $518 million project dubbed the Diamond Interchange.

The renovation will streamline the area's four major thoroughfares - state highways 114 and 183, Loop 12 and Spur 482 - with DART's rail line.

However, if a viable redevelopment project for the site emerges, city officials will likely have the option to move the transportation department's staging area to make way.

Irving officials want to have the stadium site cleared by early 2010, though they haven't decided whether to demolish the stadium in one dramatic spectacle or dismantle it piece by piece. They also are exploring whether to sell the opportunity to push the implosion button if they go the demolition route.

"You can imagine an Eagles or Redskins fan would love to blow it up," Ms. McDonald said.

While the stadium and the team have been part of the sales pitch to outsiders, the city has plenty of other selling points. There's the Las Colinas urban center, the city's proximity to one of the nation's busiest airports and a large number of local highways running through Irving. And while the stadium may give folks an idea of where Irving is, officials said it hasn't defined the city.

"What it's best done for us is create the identity that we're a suburb of Dallas," said Maura Gast, the executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau and whose job it is to sell the city to outsiders.

And there's one factor city officials are quick to point out - the football team's corporate headquarters will remain in Irving's deed-restricted Valley Ranch area.

"The stadium tenant is leaving, but the Dallas Cowboys headquarters remains here," Ms. Gast said. "And that's very important to us."

Stadium farewell

The Dallas Cowboys will host a ceremony after tonight's last regular-season home game to celebrate their history in Texas Stadium. Game time is 7:15 p.m. The ceremony will begin after the game. Stadium parking lots will open earlier than usual. The red, gold and green lots will open at 2 p.m., as will gates 1 and 6 of the blue lots. The rest of the blue lots will open at 3 p.m

From NYC: "A Wheelchair User Can't Get on a Bus, So He Blocks One," by Corey Kilgannon

The lack of access for disabled riders on New York City buses is a longstanding complaint of wheelchair users, but it is not an issue that normally makes headlines.

But take a half-dozen wheelchair users planting themselves in front of a city bus, add snarled traffic and angry drivers, a dozen police officers and news media types descending on the scene, and even a news chopper overhead. On a stifling hot day, the situation boiled over onto the asphalt of Queens Boulevard in Jamaica yesterday and quickly became an example of serious New York mayhem. (Read more here.)

From New Jersey: "I Am a Garbage Man For NJ Transit," by Jim Tosone

Published in the Sunday New York Times on September 21, 1997

Bad ideas often come camouflaged as good ideas, like when New Jersey Transit decides to upgrade something. This usually involves a shiny new piece of equipment that makes commuting even more difficult. Case in point: the fare-tracking machines that ride shotgun next to N.J. Transit bus drivers, machines that are in part responsible for my ancillary career as a garbage man for New Jersey Transit. (Read more here.)