oh public transit

I sat on the tram this morning eating my French yogurt, traveling from my small rural village to the industrial city of Saarbrücken, thinking about what I could blog about. There have been a lot of different things on my mind lately, but I just haven't taken the time to write them all down for you. I am sure in time they will be told.


Life using public transportation has been interesting. There are times when I miss having my car, but for the most part I haven't minded taking the tram and buses. This morning it would have been nice to have a car as a backup, just because I didn't want to get out of bed. :P The first time I took the tram it was exciting. It was only the second time I had ever used a tram or public transit for the matter. I guess that is a blessing or a curse growing up in rural areas.

When I was in high school my Dad, brother, sister and I went on a trip to California to celebrate my brother's graduation. We went to San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Despite all the car problems we had along the way, like overheating in the Mohave, and the radiator breaking, we never took public transit. I thought it would have been really fun to take the street car in San Francisco, but it really wasn't practical. And even then the trolley is a little different from a tram.

The tram in Salt Lake City is a little more similar. The first and only time I rode it was a lot of fun. Megan and I went to visit a friend,Becky, and go to another friends' (Kyl and Jake) wedding. We were staying in Sandy and decided to spend the day in the city shopping and looking around. Becky didn't want to drive in and neither did I, so we took the tram. It was going to be cheaper than paying for parking all day as well.  We bought our tickets and went into town. It turned out the trolley was free that day.At one point we realized it was the 24th of July-- Pioneer Day-- the day Salt Lake, and most of Utah and Idaho, celebrate the Pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley. The city was filled to the brim with people. We had a lot of fun that day. Even though there were a ton of people the train wasn't crowded as it was for me the other day.

A couple of weeks ago, it had to have been a Friday, because it was an early train, there was no extra room to breathe on the tram.It was the first time I had taken the early tram, at least by myself-- no it was the first time I had to take the 7:04. As is usual with morning trams quite a few school kids got on as well as adults, presumably on their way to school or work. more and more and more people got on the tram, but it seemed as if no one was getting off. It was getting quite crowded by now ans we were only a couple of stops away from the Hauptbahnhof, my usual stop. Usually quite a few people will get off and from what I have seen not a ton of people will get on. I wasn't in the best position to get off the tram here, so I decided to take one of the next stops, where I could also get a bus to the university. Mistake! Big Mistake!

If I didn't think there was breathing room before I was sadly mistaken. People got off at the Hauptbahnhof, but  more people got on than got off. I usually sit in one of the end cars so it is easier to get on and off the train, and to be honest I can people watch better from there. I had however decided to sit in the middle car, in one of the first rows. When it came to the last stop I could take I could barely get to the door. I had to climb, yes climb over the person sitting next to me and then squeeze down the aisle, just to push my way through the crowd standing at the doors to get off. Luckily the bus wasn't super crowded like it was the day before.

I wont go into all the details of the trip, just think about the amount of people on the train and then shove them all into a bus. Yep, that's about right. I was reading the maximum capacity in the bus and most of them can seat about 50 people sitting down and then they say upwards of 90 people can safely stand! That is just about 150 people in a little tiny space. Too close of quarters for me.

These two back to back days made me realize I am a bit claustrophobic. I never would have thought I would claim this phobia because you can stick me in dark and tight places all by myself all you want and I will be just fine, but once you start shoving people in with me and then ask me to move around I will freak out just a bit. I always knew I didn't like crowds but now I know why.