Read that Bus Schedule Carefully!!

Okay, time for Part II of Adventures in Public Transportation. On Friday afternoon before leaving the university I looked for an alternate Metro route back home. It appeared that there was a bus 58 that actually went west out Clayton Road to a point less than a mile from our house, and all I would have to do is take Metrolink to the Clayton station and then take that bus route west out Clayton just past the Galleria and walk from there. So I jumped on the Metrolink and made it to the Clayton Metrolink stop quickly enough and found bus 58 sitting there and waiting.

The first thing I noticed at around 5pm Friday afternoon is that Clayton roads are just packed at that time. What a mess! I was glad I was sitting on a bus that would take me close to my home. So I sat on the bus as it slowly made it's way around the Clayton Metrobus station and inched through the crowded Clayton roads. When we were approaching Forest Park Parkway I noticed the driver was signalling that she wanted to turn onto the Parkway which did not seem correct to me. So I pulled out the schedule I had printed out and was surprised to realize at that time of the day the bus first went all the way out to the Clayton-Ballas bus terminal before turning around and going down Clayton Road. So, sure enough, it would have made it down to Clayton Road just west of the Galleria, but it would not have been for another half an hour or more going the other way. So I asked the driver to let me off the bus since we were still close to the Clayton Metrolink station, and I took the Metrolink down to Brentwood. The first casualty of my trip then occurred -- I left my lunch box on the bus in my haste.

So I continued on the Metrolink down to Brentwood and thought I would try to locate a southern walking route through Brentwood to get to the west side of Brentwood Boulevard. So when I walked off the train I walked south with a sizable group of commuters who were not walking to the garage, but instead continuing south on the western side of the tracks. There is a nice sidewalk there that leads behind the Dierbergs where the crowd then somewhat dispersed. I was trying to find the route to Rose Avenue but realized I was walking about 20 feet behind a solitary woman now who was headed in that same direction, and I didn't want her to think I was some serial killer, so I tried cutting through a different parking lot. Unfortunately, I believe I picked the wrong parking lot, since it was bordered by a large fenced area I could not get through so I ended up walking back to Eager Road, just north of the Macaroni Grill. Oh well, I just continued west on Eager Road which does have a nice sidewalk, and I was also happy I was past the entrance to Dierbergs which does not have a crosswalk as stated last week. So I meandered down Eager which was downhill this time and not a bad walk, and then I walked through the Promenade to get down to Rose Ave where I crossed again. Walking back up Eager Road west of Brentwood sure seemed longer than it did walking down it in the morning, since that is quite an incline! But I made it up the hill and finally walked back home, albeit in a bit longer time frame than I had originally hoped!

The moral of the story is to read that bus schedule carefully!! Even though a bus may make a particular route at 2:00 pm, that does not mean it will make the same route at 5:00 pm, especially not in the time you had planned. I believe the Metrobus routes are much less predictable since they must deal with street traffic, which can vary significantly and changes a lot throughout the day. However, the Metrolink runs in an extremely timely fashion, and having ridden on it for three days now, I find it a very convenient way to get around. I will have to say that the Metrolink is definitely targeted at the "Park and Ride" people and not at walkers who want to go without a car, and particularly aimed at the Wash U crowd which definitely is a large percentage of the rush hour ridership. Today since it is a cold and windy day, I again took the quick drive from our house to the Brentwood Metrolink garage, parked there on level 5 and rode over in 10 short minutes.