OVER THE last month, the Charlottesville Transit Service endured a 20 percent increase in passengers. According to City Council member Dave Norris, this will provide substantial gains to everyone in the community. Although Norris is correct in many of the increase's advantages, he fails to recognize the negative correlation between the bus's passenger load and the quality of the bus ride.
For example, last week a group of my friends and I decided to go shopping at the Barracks Shopping Center. All went well until the departure home to our residence halls. We boarded the CTS bus that was going to take us to Fashion Square and eventually back to the Corner because we missed the UTS buses. We were aware this normally was a long bus-ride, but it was cold and our only option.
Upon boarding the bus, we quickly noticed it was a full house. However, we found seats near the front. After about three stops, we were asked to move to the back of the bus to allow room for an elderly woman in her wheel chair to board. We quickly dispersed to places near the back half of the bus. We at first might have thought this might have been a minor inconvenience; however, we did not realize how lucky we actually were to relocate when we did.
After a couple minutes with the elderly women as a passenger, the bus's tension began to quickly rise. After she soon verbally harassed a man sitting in the front of the bus about his sexual orientation, she then vocally assaulted a young African-American female with very strong racial slurs. At this point a normal passenger would think the tension in the bus -- a packed-full bus, might I add -- would be at its max. However, a normal passenger would be wrong.
Moments later, the young female reacted to this verbal assault by physically attacking the elderly woman. In retaliation, the elderly woman began to passionately strangle the young girl. After about 45 seconds of the bus skirmish, the young girl's seemingly-absent father and the elderly woman's son began to take action. However, instead of helping assuage the struggle, they began to engage in their own miniature wrestling match. At this point, chanting had begun and within twenty minutes an eight-man brawl had been born. I also should add the role the bus driver played: absolutely nothing. This is probably the most shocking aspect. In fact, the bus driver did not really respond until the bus was practically pulled over by the police (who were called countless times by the handicapped elderly woman, who actually committed the original crime). Who even knew that handicapped-accessible police vans existed?
After what was supposed to be short trip home from Barracks, we arrived back at Barracks, our original starting point, with only a three-hour-long bus legend to share. Point to be taken: crammed buses do not always insure value-crammed experiences.
Colin Hood is a first-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences.
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