Free Ride Day

Like I mentioned, I just came back from visiting Vermont.  My family thinks I'm crazy.  My aunt Marcia reads my blog and yelled into the phone to ask if I was taking MARTA to the airport, my uncle Jimmy refused to let me take the bus in Burlington to the airport, like no guest of his should be forced to take public transportation despite my pleas that I wanted to take the bus, and my cousin Heather thinks I have a problem following my insistence that I needed to collect bus maps and schedules to bring back to the Bus Nerd and friends and that these pictures really were interesting and important.
But they were important pictures, because while Burlington only has a bus system, it's extensive and run awesomely.  They have two things that we don't and I think MARTA needs to implement them yesterday.

First, the bus stations have a next bus sign.

How frickin handy is that?

The coolest thing about CCTA in Vermont (yea, almost CCT!  Whoo!) is that they're hosting a free ride day at the end of the month.  That's right folks, a day where you can ride the bus for free!

I think it's brilliant.  The bus is scary if you've never ridden before.  Where do you get on?  Where do you get off?  Which bus goes where?  And this is a great awareness opportunity.  The first time I took a bus I was intimidated more than transit as ever made me. 

The beauty of this program is that you have to register beforehand, so that means it's less likely to attract loafers and bums, they're less likely to have internet access.  But if MARTA was to have a registration process where people printed off a free pass for the day, I think it would be a great outreach.  Staff could be posted outside of the stations to help folks navigate the world of buses and with good publicity, I think it could help make MARTA seem more accessible.  I even heard that they could use some federal funds to offer such a program.

MARTA should pay me for these rad ideas.