Well now I have really gone over the moon. FOUR posts in 24 hours people!! So since I have been totally pathetic at doing this for the past 4 months, I need to catch up. So I will now profess in words my love for one of my most favorite things in Geneva: the public transport. For today we will discuss the bus. I love the train perhaps 100 times more. But everyone likes trains better. I bet you did not know how wonderful a bus system could be.
Oh Transports Publics Genevois is wonderful, at least for me. Let me give you some reasons why:
1) I can take the 9, 29 or 10 bus to work and 9 and 10 home. I never have to wait more than like 3 minutes for a bus to work because of this. Yes I happen to live at a good stop but this is a moot point, I still love the bus.
2) The buses follow a schedule (gasp!) and they stick to it! This means that when I want to go home, I can actually leave and not have to wait on an L platform for 45 minutes tapping my foot and wondering why the thing is late.
3) A lot of the buses are electric which is good for the environment!
4) Most of the buses are "accordion" that I take which means they are long with lots of room. And they are also usually very clean so it makes for a pleasant ride to work.
5) You can get Le Matin Bleu (equivalent of the Red Eye) on the bus for free in the morning.
6) People can bring their dogs on the bus which is really cute and entertaining! Somehow the dogs always know to lay down and be quiet. I guess Swiss dogs are smart.
7) I just noticed that most of the little ticket kiosks where you can buy your bus ticket have solar panels on them, meaning they are solar powered (duh) which is also good for the environment!
8) The doors only open when someone pushes a button to request for them to open. This saves time loading people if there is no one there to get on and also keeps the bus warmer since the doors do not open for no reason.
9) If you are buying your ticket at the last minute, most drivers will wait for you to encourage you to not ride the bus without a ticket (this continues in point 10)
10) The buses and trams are on the honor system. So this means they trust you to buy your ticket and have it before you get on the bus. Since I have been here, my ticket has only been checked once. It is really exciting when this happens though! All of the sudden at the Balexert stop, 4 guys got on, one at each door, all in uniforms. Then they check the tickets in between stops so you cannot escape! I have an annual pass so as long as I have this with me, I am safe. Supposedly they fine you 60 Sfr if you do not have your ticket but worse than that is that they embarass you in front of the entire bus. I did see someone handing over money when this happened to me but they didn't embarass him. Maybe the bus was not full enough to make spectacles. Anyway, it was a real thrill, kind of like right after I turned 21 and I would still get nervous to go to bars even though I knew I was legal. Almost everyone except for that one man did have their ticket, so I think it is a good system.
Oh one other thing...the bus schedules are very clever and interactive! When you go to the bus lines, you can click on your stop and it will then show you the schedule for your line, but also it shows at the top how many minutes to get to each stop down the line. It is actually kind of sad that I am so fascinated by the TPG system but that shows you how terrible the public transport in Chicago has gotten. I would ride the bus in Chicago only if I was not in a hurry. It is extensive but totally unreliable.
If you are really bored you can check out the schedules at www.tpg.ch you can check out the clever schedule thing yourself! At http://www.unireso.com/files/horaires/20070305/9.pdf
and my stop is "Servette."
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