Text and Photographs By Eduardo Barraza
Phoenix, Arizona - The bus approaches a bus stop on Van Buren
Street, near downtown Phoenix, where an older woman
instinctively reacts to the scheduled arrival. She waits during the
last few seconds on the sidewalk, staring at the pavement where
the public transportation vehicle is about to pull in. A burgundy,
heavy backpack hangs from her back and a beige purse from her
right shoulder. The pair of tennis shoes she wears reveals she’s
geared up to face a daily, routine journey of boarding, alighting
and transferring from one bus to another, as well as walking she
only knows how many streets.
Just seconds before the bus arrival, a soft wind waves her long
skirt at the same rhythm an American flag undulates across the
street from above. The screeching noise of the brakes interrupts
the monotony with the colorful, imposing arrival of the bus. The
bus operator promptly welcomes the lady in with a synchronized
movement that opens the bus doors. A computerized voice is
heard announcing to bus passengers about to alight what routes
they can transfer to from that intersection. Once in the bus, the
woman and two other passengers that hopped in the bus along
with her, join about a dozen other individuals who quietly seat
dispersed on the bus seats.
Thousands of bus riders commute every day on this Valley Metro
System’s route —Route 3— alone. According to the System’s
Ridership Report* an average of 8 thousand boardings in a single
weekday are reported solely for this route, that stretches from
67th Avenue to the Phoenix Zoo, via Van Buren Street. Statistics
show that almost 60 million of system-wise boardings were
recorded during the fiscal year 2005-2006. Evidently, the figures
reveal the great amount of individuals who use this type of public
transportation to get around in most of the fourth largest county
of the nation, Maricopa County.
But navigating through the system and throughout the Phoenix
Metro area is not an easy feat. Walking distances, sometimes
long waits, as well as crowded buses during peak hours —where
the greatest movement of passengers occurs— are among other
factors that can make a trip using this type of public
transportation quite a challenge. Leave aside the soon-to-arrive
hottest summer temperatures, which turn even the most
straightforward trip into a sweaty and breathtaking affair. For
these reasons, riding a Valley Metro bus talks about the struggle
and toil thousands of men and women face everyday in order to
move from one place to another.
But make no mistake. Riding a bus isn’t as bad of an experience
as some people may think. Public transportation by bus offers
numerous benefits to people as well as cities themselves. In fact,
thanks to the Valley Metro bus system, it is possible for many
individuals that wouldn’t be able get around otherwise, go from
one place to another. Take for instance two persons with a
disability, a man and a woman, who are sitting on their own
wheelchairs in this bus ride. Occupying the space next to the back
door of the bus, they sure seem to enjoy the accessibility of the
vehicle, which is equipped with a “wheelchair lift device” that
raises and lowers a platform that makes possible for wheelchair
users to board and alight the bus. So public transportation plays
a vital role in many people’s lives despite the inherent hardships
being a bus rider brings.
Thus, every day, and in metropolitan areas such as Phoenix’,
before the sunrise and after the sunset, the incessant traffic of
people who lack their own transportation or that use the bus for
their own convenience, creates a peculiar culture of human
movement. Upon the asphalt strip as an artery, the heartbeat of
a crowd infuses a sentiment of search in cities who attempt to
awake to a daily challenge of staying vibrant and productive.
Their workforce, industrious and booming, searches within itself
to be able to be transported rapidly and effectively through
streets and avenues, which regardless of their width or
narrowness, get tight when confronted with the piling up of traffic
of vehicles that increases with the continuous advent of new
inhabitants.
Let us imagine a city, not of private automobiles, but of a
predominant public transportation, under a sky without pollution
and where the air is air and carpooling isn’t indispensable. More
buses, and less cars; extinct traffic congestions and an
abundance of pedestrians walking upon sidewalks packed with
people who exchanged opaque and bald car tires, for shoes of
shinny and attractive appearance. Less obesity, perhaps, better
blood circulation, and bodies in shape that encouraged
themselves even to despise claustrophobic elevators, and to
prefer the concrete or metal of the staircase that is tiring, but
drop the extra pounds all the way to the first floor. And in a
harmonious motion, the gross of the population traveling, sitting
or standing, in buses where road rage is history and new
friendships germinate by sharing the bus book.
However, at least for now, public transportation slips away
through routes where the private car is boss and the bus is just
an assistant. The Phoenix metropolitan area, in this way,
Street, near downtown Phoenix, where an older woman
instinctively reacts to the scheduled arrival. She waits during the
last few seconds on the sidewalk, staring at the pavement where
the public transportation vehicle is about to pull in. A burgundy,
heavy backpack hangs from her back and a beige purse from her
right shoulder. The pair of tennis shoes she wears reveals she’s
geared up to face a daily, routine journey of boarding, alighting
and transferring from one bus to another, as well as walking she
only knows how many streets.
Just seconds before the bus arrival, a soft wind waves her long
skirt at the same rhythm an American flag undulates across the
street from above. The screeching noise of the brakes interrupts
the monotony with the colorful, imposing arrival of the bus. The
bus operator promptly welcomes the lady in with a synchronized
movement that opens the bus doors. A computerized voice is
heard announcing to bus passengers about to alight what routes
they can transfer to from that intersection. Once in the bus, the
woman and two other passengers that hopped in the bus along
with her, join about a dozen other individuals who quietly seat
dispersed on the bus seats.
Thousands of bus riders commute every day on this Valley Metro
System’s route —Route 3— alone. According to the System’s
Ridership Report* an average of 8 thousand boardings in a single
weekday are reported solely for this route, that stretches from
67th Avenue to the Phoenix Zoo, via Van Buren Street. Statistics
show that almost 60 million of system-wise boardings were
recorded during the fiscal year 2005-2006. Evidently, the figures
reveal the great amount of individuals who use this type of public
transportation to get around in most of the fourth largest county
of the nation, Maricopa County.
But navigating through the system and throughout the Phoenix
Metro area is not an easy feat. Walking distances, sometimes
long waits, as well as crowded buses during peak hours —where
the greatest movement of passengers occurs— are among other
factors that can make a trip using this type of public
transportation quite a challenge. Leave aside the soon-to-arrive
hottest summer temperatures, which turn even the most
straightforward trip into a sweaty and breathtaking affair. For
these reasons, riding a Valley Metro bus talks about the struggle
and toil thousands of men and women face everyday in order to
move from one place to another.
But make no mistake. Riding a bus isn’t as bad of an experience
as some people may think. Public transportation by bus offers
numerous benefits to people as well as cities themselves. In fact,
thanks to the Valley Metro bus system, it is possible for many
individuals that wouldn’t be able get around otherwise, go from
one place to another. Take for instance two persons with a
disability, a man and a woman, who are sitting on their own
wheelchairs in this bus ride. Occupying the space next to the back
door of the bus, they sure seem to enjoy the accessibility of the
vehicle, which is equipped with a “wheelchair lift device” that
raises and lowers a platform that makes possible for wheelchair
users to board and alight the bus. So public transportation plays
a vital role in many people’s lives despite the inherent hardships
being a bus rider brings.
Thus, every day, and in metropolitan areas such as Phoenix’,
before the sunrise and after the sunset, the incessant traffic of
people who lack their own transportation or that use the bus for
their own convenience, creates a peculiar culture of human
movement. Upon the asphalt strip as an artery, the heartbeat of
a crowd infuses a sentiment of search in cities who attempt to
awake to a daily challenge of staying vibrant and productive.
Their workforce, industrious and booming, searches within itself
to be able to be transported rapidly and effectively through
streets and avenues, which regardless of their width or
narrowness, get tight when confronted with the piling up of traffic
of vehicles that increases with the continuous advent of new
inhabitants.
Let us imagine a city, not of private automobiles, but of a
predominant public transportation, under a sky without pollution
and where the air is air and carpooling isn’t indispensable. More
buses, and less cars; extinct traffic congestions and an
abundance of pedestrians walking upon sidewalks packed with
people who exchanged opaque and bald car tires, for shoes of
shinny and attractive appearance. Less obesity, perhaps, better
blood circulation, and bodies in shape that encouraged
themselves even to despise claustrophobic elevators, and to
prefer the concrete or metal of the staircase that is tiring, but
drop the extra pounds all the way to the first floor. And in a
harmonious motion, the gross of the population traveling, sitting
or standing, in buses where road rage is history and new
friendships germinate by sharing the bus book.
However, at least for now, public transportation slips away
through routes where the private car is boss and the bus is just
an assistant. The Phoenix metropolitan area, in this way,
| HISI © 2007 |
Riding on Bus Route 3
A routine ride in a few buses of the Transit System in Phoenix,
Arizona opens up a whole dimension where human toil and
struggle unfolds.
Arizona opens up a whole dimension where human toil and
struggle unfolds.
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| metro light rail in phoenix |
| MULTIMEDIA COVERAGE |
Photo by Eduardo Barraza | BARRIOZONA
| Click arrow to start video |
| MULTIMEDIA COVERAGE |
| phoenix bus route 3 |
becomes suffocated in the contamination of the vehicular selfishness, where hundreds of thousands of cars with as many other hundreds of
thousands of lonely drivers inside of them, narrow the shared option of the democratic experience of traveling in a bus, surrounded by strangers,
who are people, after all. A bus; we could ponder it as a means of humble and unpretentious transportation that is there only to take us to our
destination, and at the rhythm of the “music” of a programmed voice that guides through routes and buses so we do not err our direction.
On the way to work, school bound, coming back home; going to the market, the daycare facility or to the site of reunion; Valley Metro buses carry
people almost incessantly. Individuals engrossed in their own thoughts, men and women with work uniforms and I.D. badges, entire families with
children who enjoy the simplicity of happiness. People with disabilities who, lacking help, rely on themselves at the pace of the wheels of their
chairs that limit them, but traveling in buses empower them. Homeless people who carry heavy backpacks and refuge from cold or hot weather on
a trip they long could be interminable. Strangers who act like childhood friends under the bus shelters installed on the sidewalks, that provide
seats and protection from the elements. There, friendships emerge and dissipate within the “dwell time,” that is, the scheduled time a bus
discharges and takes on passengers at a bus stop, sometimes a few seconds. And lastly, the people who ride bikes where buses don’t run, and
whose bikes ride on the bike rack located on the front of the bus. All, equally —passengers of a temporary stay— by means of a bus pass, coins or
a transfer slip, travel inside a bus that is comparable to life, in which we all board at one point and alight at another, at the end of our destination.
While the majority of the bus riders remain quiet, the ride is noisy. The sound of the bus engine, the air brakes, as well as the incessant
programmed voice that announces stops and routes as an automatic service for passengers, compose almost the entirety of sounds heard
through the trip. The occasional, lively conversation, the sporadic children’s excite, or the perfect stranger who tells us to "have a nice day," breaks
once in a while the almost generalized silence of passengers. Some board; others alight. The bus stops; advances. The route begins; ends.
Garage bound, on the way home, bus and passenger move further away from each other. The half-light of the night closes the eyelids and turns
off the headlights. Tomorrow, another journey.
thousands of lonely drivers inside of them, narrow the shared option of the democratic experience of traveling in a bus, surrounded by strangers,
who are people, after all. A bus; we could ponder it as a means of humble and unpretentious transportation that is there only to take us to our
destination, and at the rhythm of the “music” of a programmed voice that guides through routes and buses so we do not err our direction.
On the way to work, school bound, coming back home; going to the market, the daycare facility or to the site of reunion; Valley Metro buses carry
people almost incessantly. Individuals engrossed in their own thoughts, men and women with work uniforms and I.D. badges, entire families with
children who enjoy the simplicity of happiness. People with disabilities who, lacking help, rely on themselves at the pace of the wheels of their
chairs that limit them, but traveling in buses empower them. Homeless people who carry heavy backpacks and refuge from cold or hot weather on
a trip they long could be interminable. Strangers who act like childhood friends under the bus shelters installed on the sidewalks, that provide
seats and protection from the elements. There, friendships emerge and dissipate within the “dwell time,” that is, the scheduled time a bus
discharges and takes on passengers at a bus stop, sometimes a few seconds. And lastly, the people who ride bikes where buses don’t run, and
whose bikes ride on the bike rack located on the front of the bus. All, equally —passengers of a temporary stay— by means of a bus pass, coins or
a transfer slip, travel inside a bus that is comparable to life, in which we all board at one point and alight at another, at the end of our destination.
While the majority of the bus riders remain quiet, the ride is noisy. The sound of the bus engine, the air brakes, as well as the incessant
programmed voice that announces stops and routes as an automatic service for passengers, compose almost the entirety of sounds heard
through the trip. The occasional, lively conversation, the sporadic children’s excite, or the perfect stranger who tells us to "have a nice day," breaks
once in a while the almost generalized silence of passengers. Some board; others alight. The bus stops; advances. The route begins; ends.
Garage bound, on the way home, bus and passenger move further away from each other. The half-light of the night closes the eyelids and turns
off the headlights. Tomorrow, another journey.
Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues in Phoenix, Arizona
| HISTORY IS ABOUT TO CHANGE Grassroots Journalism |
Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
| Barriozona Magazine Founded in 2002 Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues www.hisi.org Contact: admin@barriozona.com |
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