A novice bus rider.

Woke up early, packed warm clothes & food for the day (including homemade yogurt!), and caught the bus. It takes 3 to get to CWB from my home.

At the transfer to the second bus, there was a young woman waiting, and she seemed a little apprehensive. She said it was her first time using the bus, and she wanted to make sure her route would work. I looked over her tripplanner printout and confirmed that it made sense. After chatting idly for a bit, we realized that her itinerary was from a Friday, and we were traveling on a Saturday. Saturday schedules are a little different than weekday, and her plan was to transfer at the Evergreen Point stop, which is actually on the highway (SR-520), right before the bridge. It seemed like an uncomfortable place to be waiting for an hour if her intinerary wasn't going to work out.

I offered to use my Pocket PC Phone (with web browser & GPRS) to help her figure out the right route. Unfortunately, as the bus sped along the highway I couldn't get a good signal & load the web pages.

She decided to take her chances at Evergreen Point. However, she didn't ring the bell. She walked up to the front of the bus and surprised the driver just as he was about to accelerate away from the stop.

I hadn't occured to me that anyone wouldn't know how to signal for a stop. I guess it really was her first bus trip.

If you haven't taken a bus before, here's the info: either pull the string or push the yellow strip. It will light up a sign that says "STOP" or "STOP REQUESTED". Or just talk to the driver about where you want to go.

Anyway, I hope she got where she wanted to go, and without too much hassle.