Shannon Costello

Monday I ventured alone into D. C.  

I was going to take the red line of the metro to the Tenleytown-AU stop and then take a bus to the American University campus.  

I am afraid of buses, mostly because I can’t figure them out.  Once in Mexico I needed to take a bus back to where I lived.  I was blundering around Montemorelos, Mexico looking for the bus stop when - fortunately - somebody gave me a ride.  If they hadn’t I’d probably still be looking.  Recently I had a bad dream in which I was trying to figure out a bus schedule in my home town in NY and failing miserably. So I figured I had better prepare if I wanted to conquer my fears.  I printed out the bus schedule, a map of the bus route studied a map of the area.  

It wasn’t enough.  

I was unable to locate the correct stop after exiting the metro, even though I found 4 or 5 other stops close by.  I did not understand that the route labels on the map were just that, and not stop markers, which do not generally appear on the map.  (They aren’t needed, as there are stops every couple tenths of a mile.  I learned that on the mile walk to campus.  Previously I had assumed there were only as many stops as there were headings on the schedule.)  

In addition to not understanding the bus map, I failed to locate myself correctly on the map.  I think. The metro stop in question is near Tenley Circle, where three streets come together.  That was two too many for me.  

The metro trip planner told me to take the N2 bus “toward Farragut.”  The buses are labeled in a similar manner.  However, the schedules typically give a direction.  I was not prepared for this.  In addition, I was focused on one small part of the bus route.  The directions on the schedule (eastbound-westbound) are based on the main road of the route, which I believed did not concern me.  End result:  I was puzzled as to why I was supposed to go east when I knew I needed to go west.  

As I left campus I saw the correct bus at an appropriate stop, just on the other side of the road. Unfortunately the signal forbade me to cross.  When it finally changed it was too late, the bus was already pulling away from the stop.  

And that, my friends, is how Shannon got her exercise for the day.