For IAR 201, three of my friends and I rode the city bus to the downtown Depot and then back. The bus came fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled, and while I was walking onto the bus, I had a confusing experience. I was trying to pay for the bus ride, but the person who entered the bus before me (Meg) didn't pay the entire dollar and twenty cents, so I had to pay extra but I couldn't understand the bus driver. Then once we were all settled in the back of the bus, some creepy man kept trying to wave at us from the front of the bus.
I noticed while sitting on the bus, that everybody spread out from each other, and not one person was traveling with somebody else. If I had to ride the bus by myself I would not feel comfortable. Even when I rode with three other people, we were getting stares from the other passengers as if we were not welcome and did not belong.
Then while we were at the depot, we couldn't figure out what bus to get on next. The maps online were very confusing and only somebody who rode the bus everyday would probably be able to fully understand it. Eventually, Meg and I asked the bus driver which bus we needed to take in order to go back where we came from. The bus driver was very rude and looked at us as if we were stupid. I had to explain to him that it was for a school project before he would tell us what bus to get on.
On the second bus, the seats were different than what they were on the first bus. They were uncomfortable and had no cushioning so when the bus driver slammed onto this brakes, I would have to grip the seat with my hands to keep from falling over. Also, after I touched the seats and railings, my hands smelled funny. I thought the bus seemed really unsanitary. The man sitting next to Jenni Deal kept putting his hands on her seat and the other people around us were continuing to stare at us.
Once we reached campus, the bus driver drove right past the bus stop that we were supposed to get off at. I was so confused trying to figure out where to go. There were yellow ropes on the side of the bus and I wanted to try and pull the rope to get he bus driver to pull over and let us out, but I didn’t know if I was allowed to do that. The atmosphere of the bus was scary and I felt as if I would get in trouble if I did anything out of the norm. The fact that we were trying to take pictures on the bus was also a factor that didn’t help us out. We got more stares than usual and I could tell that one woman next to me was getting pretty angry. Jenni ended up taking a video the entire time because she didn’t want people to keep thinking that we were trying to take pictures of them.
In the end, the city bus was not the greatest experience. I am glad I rode on it though, because if I ever have to do that again I will be able to figure out what I’m doing. However, I would probably never ride the bus myself because I would feel unsafe.
Our group designed two buses that would provide two different needs for hurricane victims. The first bus is our "counseling" bus that provides counselors to victims. Our second bus is a damage prevention bus that will be available to people who need supplies during a hurricane. these materials would include wood, nails, water, batteries, and lots more. This project ws very hard to design because we were restricted to different bus dimensions. Also, the models were difficult to build with all the details.
