Catching on to CATA

By Emily Wilkins

Created:
01/28/10 4:48pm

Last updated:
01/28/10 6:36pm

4 comments

In my elementary school days, I took the bus.

It was a simple concept. You got on at the neighborhood bus stop and you got off at school. One destination, one route, one bus.

With that being said, the Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, scares me to the core. The first time I attempted to take a bus to downtown Lansing I waited at the wrong stop for about 20 minutes. Although I was waiting with 16 other kids, not a single one of them spoke English.

At long last I called the CATA hotline and was informed of my mistake. I got the impression the lady on the other end of the phone thought I was stupid — a fact I confirmed when I got on the right bus headed in the wrong direction. Instead of taking 15 minutes, it took twice as long to finally reach my destination. I then lost my bus card and had a good reason to not ride CATA again.

But lately, it’s gotten cold outside. In addition to my ID, I recently lost my gloves and neck warmer (are you seeing a pattern here?). So, I dished out $50, grabbed a map, and wondered why CATA was No. 1 in America — for its overcrowding of vehicles?

Luckily, since I go to the same group of buildings five days per week, I’ve mastered some aspects of public transportation such as doing a visual sweep of a bus prior to sitting so you can decide whether to put your bag on your lap or the seat next to you. But other lessons have been learned the hard way.

Waiting for Route 1, I abandoned all hope once 25 minutes had passed. After 26 minutes, the bus blew right by me. There also was the time I thought Route 26 would take me to South Complex and instead I got a lovely tour of Chandler Crossings.

Last week, as I faced sub-zero temperatures and a mile-long trek across campus, Route 31 paused on the corner of Farm Lane and Grand River Avenue just long enough for me to appear in the side-view mirror running to catch it. I did.

Just like everything else here, CATA is more complex than I thought. But I’m a regular rider now (I don’t have much of a choice without my gloves. They’re grey with a white pattern by the way).

Commentary

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Bleh

(01/29/10 12:28am)
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Emily,

I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who gets on the wrong bus from time to time!

Alum

(01/29/10 10:28am)
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Oh how I miss the CATA system. So cheap, and, once you’ve experienced the bus system of a major city, you’ll reallize it’s very clean and not really all that crowded (I mean most of the time you don’t have to spend the whole trip standing packed in between other people so tightly you can’t move, right).

stdnt

(01/29/10 6:34pm)
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ya your not the only one who has waited half an hour for the #1 bus only to have it blow right by you. The thing the frustrates me the most about CATA though is how the bus drivers take 20-25 minute breaks like every round. They leave you on the bus, and everyone is waiting and then go talk on the phone, read a book, i don’t even know. I’ve never experienced this in any other bus system. I understand that bus drivers need breaks every once and a while, but here’s an idea, take turns! switch out bus drivers who need a rest and use ones who are rested to continue the route. Then buses might be on time for once!

Jude

(01/31/10 2:36pm)
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I got on the wrong bus (going the other way) the first time I rode it when I was a freshman. After that, not once did I ride the wrong bus. CATA is the simplest transit system and there is a reason there are MAPS plastered at almost every stop.

Not to sound mean, but Emily, you are an idiot. If you can’t handle CATA’s system, there’s absolutely no way in hell you can survive a big city’s transit system (in which mind you, is REAL complicated, in which you should get after one ride).

About Frosh In the City

From Catholic school to MSU, freshman staffer Emily Wilkins shares her first-year experiences in a co-ed, college environment. See her life outside the bubble as her freshman year unfolds.

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