So, after a day like Wednesday, Thursday had to make up for it by being horrible.
Before I left in the morning, I heard on the radio that there was a "police incident" on the Riverdale Road overpass, and all traffic on I-15 was being forced off, as well as all traffic on Riverdale Road not being allowed to cross the bridge. But for some reason, it didn't cross my mind that that would affect the bus, since it usually crosses on the next bridge up north anyway. Silly me. So I hopped on my bike because I wanted to take the bus and not drive. Well, a few minutes after getting on, the driver starts getting all these calls and other communications about it, and that traffic is way backed up around Riverdale and Roy and everywhere. And it finally came out that it was all because a guy was sitting on the edge of the bridge. I agreed with the driver that it is probably worth it to get off the bus and ride my bike up to the Roy FrontRunner station, even though it will make me late-because staying on the bus would also make me late. I considered just riding the rest of the way up to the school but decided against it because the 640 wouldn't be able to save me coming up 36th St. if I required it, with it being stuck on the west side of the freeway and all.
Here's where it gets fun. I get off the bus around 6000 S in Roy, and since I don't really know where the station is (I know the number is like, 41-hundred-something), I asked the bus driver what street to take down and she told me 4000 S. Silly me again, thinking the grid system would work! I didn't particularly want to stay on Main Street so I turned west at 4800 S and turned alternately north and west for a while. When I knew I was close to the tracks, I just went north. I got to a point where I could see the station to the left but the streets were all dead ends. THEN, the street I was riding on ended. I wasn't to 4000 yet, the road to the left was a dead end, and I didn't want to go east!
For some reason that I worked out in my brain I decided to turn back south and was determined that I would get to the station no matter how much bush-whacking it took. I turned at the second street, which actually ended at an orchard with a nice path through it so I took it, which brought me to the station, separated only by a fence--with barbed wire stretched across the top. Crap. I followed the fence up a little ways hoping that it would change, and luckily I found a small drainage-type ditch so I locked my bike to the fence and limboed under the fence to catch the train or bus to Ogden, as the bus I potentially needed was pulling away. I made it stop and asked if I had missed the train, the driver answered in the affirmative, so I got on.
Then I texted my people to tell them I would be really late, sharing my woes of having to ditch my bike and crawl under a fence. Once in Ogden, I asked the driver it would be worth it to get off and catch the 603 on 26th St and he assured me that it was not. So as we're pulling into the transit center, the 603 pulls away and I get a little mad. I tried to make the bus driver do something to get the other bus to stop but he wouldn't. At least that bus goes every 15 minutes so I wasn't in much more of a pickle than I was already in!
I did eventually make it up to the school about an hour after I would have if the 640 had been able to get me there. Then the thing was, I had left my bike in a private orchard . . . so I just had to hope all day that the owner didn't cut the lock and impound it or anything! I was sad not to be able to ride back down the hill to the station (one of my favorite things to do), and just had to cross my fingers the whole 8-minute train ride back to Roy. Lucky for me, my bike was still there! And due to things UTA does that I don't agree with, I ended up riding it all the way home from there. I knew July was going to be good for biking and the like! Wait--did that just turn into a success story? Oops.
And here I will share the issues I have with UTA, and there are 2:
1. I am quite convinced that they are not making smart decisions by cutting back on trips per day.
-If you miss one route and have to wait a whole hour before the next one comes by, I'm going to go back and drive and I bet many others feel the same way. Also, there are days I simply can't take the bus because it doesn't run late enough to get me home. I know for a fact I am not the only one with that issue. Cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco work because everyone knows if you miss one train or bus, another one will come along in a couple minutes and you won't really have a problem! If they would add trips instead of cutting them, I feel like they would gain more riders.
2. They don't do themselves any favors by placing their stops and stations in obscure locations that no one can find unless they've been there before.
-It's just rude to have so many streets lead up to your place and they all are actually dead ends except one. Also slightly dangerous--does the fire marshall know about this? It must be against some code or something. And it's not just the Roy station, either.
3. It used to only be 2, but on my ride home I came up with a new one: What kind of transit company has a toll-free number that isn't a 24-hour hotline?
-I never imagined that a public transit place would have their hotline close at 7pm! I was coming down Main St. and wanted to know when the 470 would be able to come save me since it was a long way, so I called the number and all it did was tell me their hours and that I could look online. Like heck I could! Jerks. If you want riders, you've gotta up the service, people. I'm tellin' ya. Wow. At least at the next bus stop it had posted route times. But not all stops have that, and they advertise the stupid hotline.
The end.
