Monthly Archives: May 2008

FTA: mandate a whistleblower SMS number on buses

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I wrote this sitting on the 1pm Peter Pan bus from New York back to Boston:

I’m noticed some pretty disturbing things:

  1. The bus driver has been on the phone for a good portion of the drive.
  2. Greyhound / Peter Pan doesn’t post a “How’s my driving?” phone number inside the cabin.
  3. Even if they did, I’d be uncomfortable making that call in earshot of the driver. If I had the temerity to do that, I’d just tell the driver to his face.

Solution? Well the bus operators themselves ought to provide an SMS number for us to silently report bad driver behavior for immediate followup. But I don’t trust voluntary participation. This is one realm where the FTA should step in.

Greyhound drops “convenience fee,” ups NYC discount fare

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With Greyhound’s own BoltBus funneling off the crazy bargain shoppers, Greyhound’s Boston-New York discount fare (the one you have to click “Can I get a lower price?” to get) is now up to $45. But in a victory for transparency, they’ve also dropped the “convenience fee” of $3. So, compared with a month ago, the price is now UP $2, but at least there’s no bait-and-switch pricing going on any more.

(BoltBus runs fewer trips than Greyhound — I needed something around 8pm and BoltBus only runs until 5pm. And once again I needed to be Midtown, West Side).

Obama USA’08: shame on me

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The insane proposals by John McCain and Hillary Clinton to provide a “gas tax holiday” has shaken me out of media-induced stupor: there are real issues and real values at stake in this election. Jeremiah Wright, “snipergate,” and all the rest of that is just soporific to keep us from facing hard realities. Shame on me for forgetting.

You want to talk issues and facts? Here are issues and facts: on this issue of gas pricing, Barack Obama is the only Presidential candidate who is showing real leadership on energy. McCain and Clinton can talk a good game, but standing up to the pressure to pander is the first test of political courage. Cutting the gas tax would not only be a prelude to an even more ruinous carbon policy, but it also continues to play into the false notion that federal taxes are what keep working-class people down in this country.

On the New York Times comment page in response to the paper’s editorial opposing the McCain-Clinton proposal, David Keppel, Bloomington, Indiana writes:

At a rally in Bloomington, Indiana tonight, Barack Obama talked about the importance of telling the truth — and he used the gas tax as an example. We must learn to conserve. Technological innovation — in clean energy — is important, but social innovation is even more important. That’s why the election is not just what Senator Clinton calls “a hiring decision”; it is about inspring a nation to live differently.

Bravo, Barack. Finally, I’m wide awake again to the issues that matter, not the garbage that doesn’t.