Monday, December 7, 2009

1. Drive Unfriendly 2. Sun Metro safe?

1. I believe that the official motto for drivers in Texas is "drive friendly"

In my experience, the actual behavior, from a pedestrian standpoint is the exact opposite. Drivers are AGGRESSIVE and UNFRIENDLY.

Last week I tried to cross Executive Blvd just off North Mesa. I had a walk light. The cars refused to stop.
They were turning right at the light, and they just kept coming--even though I waved my arms and shouted.

I repeat: There was a walk light. (In previous posts I have pointed out that the wise traffic engineers allow pedestrians
very very little time during which to cross El Paso's wide boulevards....)

I will say that again:

I was standing on the corner. There was a light giving me permission to walk. I could not step off the curb
safely because the cars were speeding by, refusing to stop.

In my experience, that is typical of the way people are in this city--at least when they are in their cars,
their cars which are destroying the environment, and which contributed to climate changes which,
according to conservative estimates were responsible for the death of between 300,000 and 400, 000 people last year....

2. Rumors about "Sun MEtro"

this afternoon as I waited for the 42 bus to take me downtown, I noticed six or eight or more men (and maybe
one woman) dressed in a "professional" manner with shirts and ties and clipboards and such paraphernalia.

I believe they did not travel by bus, though I cannot be sure. I noticed one group of four or six men
coming from the parking lot. I didn't actually see them get out of a car or van, but I didn't see them get
out of a bus either.

It would appear they were there because they are planning to build a new building in the Northgate shopping center
to replace the current changing center.

this seems to me a bad strategy. We don't need a better changing center. We (passengers/bus riders) need to
spend less time in the buses, and (above all) less time waiting for buses.

The whole idea of making better changing centers seems bad logic. It is like the idea that the purpose of airplanes
is to bring people to high-priced shopping malls in the airports...

Incidentally, I don't mind mentioning that the downtown changing center features unhealthy food.

(And a television, which I for one, could happily live without....)

Why spend money on changing centers? Is this a transportation system? Wouldn't it be better to improve
transportation? Better to have fewer time gaps between buses. The current building is fine. I don't want to spend
my life in those changing centers!

It seems to me that Sun Metro and the City of El paso have their priorities wrong.

LEss waiting time is the goal.

More buses and more drivers.

In fact, given the facts about global warming and our (USA) propensity for over-consumption, I think they should
replace the freeways with a metro system--trains, a train or elevated train or underground train, but not buses!

BECAUSE BUSES ARE JUST TOO SLOW!!!!
too pokey
and less comfortable than trains.


3. Gossip

I hear the city is planning to get rid of the experienced bus mechanics....

That would make the buses less safe.

WARNING NOTE (added November 2010) THIS IS GOSSIP; you should not believe it because you read it here.
The reasonable thing to do is to check it out at a reliable source. I was told this by someone who works for Sun Metro. that does not mean it is true. However, we do know that the policy of getting rid of more experienced, and better qualified, more competent workers is nothing new. It would not be surprising if it were happening in El Paso Texas. That does not, however, prove that it is happening. Use your mind. Don't believe everything you read.
((ThIs post should be a rough draft; I hope to return to it and beautify/clean up the prose....)

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