- I didn't wake up with exact change today.
- Mel to bus driver inThe Prisoner of Second Avenue
An early sign of the economic downturn: another guy getting on a city bus holding out a five dollar bill to the driver. Until recently, this person had both a job and a car. Now, one or both of those is gone. This lost soul has never come through the front door of a city bus in his life.
My first tip to a bus newbie? Sit down within shouting distance of the driver and try to work something out because the bus is going to jerk forward whether you are ready or not and if you aren't careful you're gonna end up in somebody's lap. Once you're in a seat, you hold up the five toward all the people sitting behind you and ask if anyone has change. You may need to accept four dollars, twenty-four cents and a peppermint drop. Take it, smile, pay the fare and keep the candy. You may get stranded later and need the sugar for sustenance. And even if no one has change, you'll get to ride a few blocks before the driver puts you off again.
Having exact change for the bus every time one wants to ride is tricky. I personally put all my pocket change in a little container on my dresser. There's much less in there now, in this age of the debit card. Like everyone else, I hardly ever use cash.
Another option are a monthly pass, which is worth the money if you ride the bus a couple times a day at least five days a week, but not otherwise. A lot of people go to the bank or the service desk at the grocery store and buy a roll of quarters or a stack of one dollar bills to use for bus fare.
Even if you are pretty good with this, you'll occasionally find yourself with a large denomination bill and nine minutes till the bus comes. It's good to know where you can go in the neighborhood to buy a little bag of cashews or the newspaper or a bottle of juice so you can get change back in a hurry. I miss the neighborhood coffee shop across the street from my old house. The guy in there knew me and more than once, I rushed in there and said, "Can I pay for a coffee now and come get it later? Bus fare!" and like lightning Jovan gave me change for a ten and I was out the door in time to catch the #4 South.
In Columbus, the buses had digital counters and would catch you if you were a penny short. And you'd get confronted over the penny, even if the bus was empty and going north anyway whether or not you were on it. In Maine, they leavc old technology in place so we still have the little glass box where the driver can do a quick eyeball of your coinage to see if you're close, and then dump the trap at the bottom to let the money fall into the fare box. And I live in a small enough city that the driver knows you, and if you get on with a five, she'll say, "You coming back home after lunch? Just get me then." And she knows I will because she'll be my driver next Thursday too.
