Are you ever required to travel an exceptionally long distance across campus or around town? Do you have a class at the top of Bascom but don’t feel like walking up a ridiculously large hill to burn only a single Cheeto’s worth of calories? Do you live far from your classes, either off campus or in some remote Lakeshore dorm? Does the thought of walking in the looming zero-degree winter sound like the worst thing ever? Are you just straight-up lazy?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should consider becoming a regular rider of the Madison Metro Transit System, otherwise known as the bus!
Many of my friends tell me they would take the bus around campus and greater Madison if they simply knew how to navigate the system. While the bus system can seem confusing, all you really have to do to figure out which bus to take is to type your location and destination into Google Maps. You can do this on a smart phone or computer.
(I’m sure there’s some old-fashioned way of doing this, but it’s probably time consuming and won’t sell you on the system, so better to just not look into that and to take my advice instead.)
Despite how easy it is to ride the bus, a lot of my friends refuse to do so because—from what I can gather—there are a bunch of myths about mass transit. Fellow Badgers, as a frequent Madison Metro passenger, I am here to set the record straight and convert you into a regular rider.
The number-one misguided complaint I hear about the bus is that it’s janky and inefficient. While the bus may seem this way, I prefer to view it as large and in charge. Sure, it’s not as a sexy as the beige ’98 Camry I have sitting in front of my mom’s house, but taking the bus is still more efficient than walking, both for cross-campus travel and for off-campus excursions.
When it comes to cross-campus travel, taking the bus can make the difference between arriving to class on time and having to squeeze across a row of your classmates, only to end up wedged in the middle seat of the Ag Hall lecture room.
Looking at off-campus trips: It may seem like you’re grounded if you want to stray far from downtown but don’t have a car. Not the case. There are plenty of routes that’ll take you from east to west, north to south and back again.
Not only does riding the bus make long trips feasible, it also makes them physically bearable once the weather gets cold. Sure, during the pleasant late-September weather, biking down University seems like a breeze. But just you wait when winter rolls around and Madison turns into a giant skating rink.
Rather than compete with zippy moped drivers and aggressive pedestrians, hop on the bus and look down as the plebes gravel around Linden at Charter while you plow through the intersection with force and power.
Now, in fairness to the haters, the busses have their problems. Sometimes, the buses are late. Sometimes, the 80 is so full that the driver straight-up denies you entry. Sometimes, the bus takes off before you sit down, causing you to spill coffee everywhere, which leaves you both sticky and humiliated. Sometimes, you end up seated next to someone with extra bad BO who really wants to be your friend. But thus is life.
So, give the bus a shot. The only truly bad thing that ever happened to me was ending up stranded at the end of the line alone at midnight.
Share your thoughts with Rachel at rmschulze@dailycardinal.com or just stop her on the bus.
