In this episode, we meet up with a long-time transit user to hear about their experiences riding the bus in Austin, TX, and get their hot tips for the transit curious.
In this episode, we meet up with a long-time transit user to hear about their experiences riding the bus in Austin, TX, and get their hot tips for the transit curious.
On this episode, we meet up with a longtime bus rider to learn about their experiences relying on public transit. That and more is coming up on transit tangents. So we're back you have a thing when you start your hands go up. I noticed that on the on episode one. It cuts and there's like a split second where you're just like ready to go. Yep. And the reset. Hi, Louis. It was a good reset.
Louis:Yeah. Well, welcome to this third episode of transit tangents. I'm Louis. I'm Chris. And yeah, after the last episode, where we featured our friend Michel riding the bus for the first time. We're kind of changing things up a little bit here by not going with somebody who's brand new to riding the bus. But instead we're talking to somebody who rides the bus all the time.
Chris:Has been riding the bus and Austin since they were about 14, I think. Yep. Is that their their ride from school? And that's pretty remarkable to me. We'll talk about in the video, but I didn't have access to public transit to get to school. Did you when you're growing up?
Louis:I know unless you count the school bus? I guess I did. Is that public?
Chris:I mean, it is public transit. I guess that is the definition. So no, I
Louis:didn't. I didn't have like there was not another it's not gonna take in a city bus or anything. But we did. I grew up riding the bus for the most part. Occasionally, I would ask my mom for a ride and she would oblige. Which was very lovely of her. But yeah, mostly riding school bus. No other real public transit option, though. Gotcha. Yeah,
Chris:I do wanna take a second. I'm noticing you. You're in the theme color right now. Oh, you look like the logo. Look
Louis:at me. Yeah, I would say it was intentional, but it's not. It's just older and say it's potential for the for those of you listening, I'm wearing it and a lovely green fleece. very intentional. Yes. It's gonna have the logo on it soon. Maybe that would be that would be
Chris:great. Maybe Maybe we'll have a transit tangent store coming up. We'll see. Yes, yeah. What's in store?
Louis:So for this? Sorry. Wow, love it. To get back back on track here. Well, actually,
Chris:but yeah, you do look great in the green, it is very similar to the logo. And for anybody who's listening, they should go check out the logo, if you haven't seen it, and you can find it on transit tangents.com. That is our podcasts website. There, you can see all of the episodes that are uploaded, you can get links back to our socials
Louis:and also on there too. I mean, if you're listening to us, and you want to watch the video version that is on YouTube, the links will be there. If you're watching us and you want to listen to us in the car, or vice versa, all that good stuff. Awesome. So onto this episode. As you mentioned, we are having a conversation with Hoffman, a regular transit user in the city of Austin, where we live. to kind of get to this meeting, we met up at a local coffee shop. I met Hoffman partway. They were on my bus ride down. So we met each other near the UT campus, hopped on a bus went to cosmic Chris had a little bit more of a journey though I
Chris:had a very different experience getting there. It started with a medical appointment that I you'll see through the video, I'm struggling with allergies. So had a nice medical appointment and from there had to make it across town to the interview with with you guys. And it was a journey. I was coming from pretty far north in Austin and we were meeting up very central just next to downtown. But thankfully on the the train line, what is just blew my mind and was so infuriating was that I was in a medical complex. There's a major hospital right across the street. There are no transit stops. There isn't there is not a single bus stop. That was not 15 minutes of walking away from the office that I was at. Why would
Louis:you need to take public transit to a hospital. I mean, just take your car, Chris. Come on. Yeah.
Chris:Because everyone has their car to drive to the hospital. Right. Right. Right. But it was it was absolutely insane. And, you know, to get to the closest bus stop it actually required going into a green belt in Austin. We have these sort of public spaces we call green belts. They're just big natural areas. Usually they follow a creek. There's usually beautiful trails, hiking, running, biking, all of that stuff. This the only way for you to get to the closest bus stop was to go through one of these green belts. But then to get out of the Greenbelt, there was no path. I had to sort of bushwhack through the trees. It was like a hilariously small little like dirt path and you were like in a parking lot.
Louis:We have Some of the footage here so we'll we'll go ahead and play some of that. So you can listen and watch and see what Chris's journey was to come in meet Hoffman and I at a coffee shop. Yeah,
Chris:enjoy the struggle, enjoy my struggle. As far as starting off walks to the nearest station, this isn't bad. Well barely been walking and already hit a snag, because the trail that I'm following has now turned into this little path. That is what Google is telling you to follow, to get to the nearest bus. Okay, I think this is the definition of a desire path where people just forced the path out of will to get through this little park. I think to the ACC campus, following up path led me straight to a parking lot. I believe at ACC you are just a little meandering through campus. But found the stuff that we're looking for now cyber week. Suppose it's up to you. This is my favorite station in Austin. Now let's go meet Austin and how have a conversation. I did eventually make it. It took in total a little under two hours for me to get from North Austin to central Austin. We're meeting Hoffman which again, we'll talk a little bit about their experience and using transit and Austin apparently, the time was not unreasonable. Maybe or not just sorry. It was unreasonable. It wasn't the time that it took me it was not unheard of.
Louis:Ah, right. Right, right. Yes. Yeah. For you to get down there. Ya know, so and Hoffman has a lot of good insights, again, over years and years of using trends and Austin. So without further ado, let's let's go to that conversation between Chris and I and our new friend Hoffman.
Chris:I feel 1000 times better. I was struggling on the train.
Hoffman:Without food, there's nothing worse than riding on cat Metro hungry. Although they should have a snack bar
Louis:on the train is probably better than hungry on the bus. That's true. Yeah, hungry on the train. I would just start getting like a little carsick. I think being hungry on the bus
Chris:was hungry on both. Train to get here. For
Louis:sure. Yeah, since we're already going for it. Let's just keep it let's just keep going for it. So we are currently at cosmic in East Austin, the new the new cosmic. And we're joined by Hoffman, and we actually met at the wider work a couple weeks back at this point. You can go check out that episode if you haven't listened to it yet. But we wanted to talk with you because after that rally, we chatted for a bit and you said that you're a heavy kind of transit user use the bus to get around mostly in Austin. And after the last episode we did I filled you in a little bit on it on our bus ride over here. We actually went out me Chris and our friend Michelle and Michelle had never used the bus before and Austin. Chris has very limited experience using the bus in Austin and hey,
Chris:I want to take a step back and say I'm very proud. I have lessons learned from the Michelle episode. Yeah, yeah, I made it here. And the videos, the video show I had some trouble but it all worked out. Yeah.
Louis:So it was a it's kind of gonna be a kind of a fun contrast, though. Looking back at that episode with people who have never really used the bus to now somebody who used the bus for getting to work getting all sorts of places like that. So I guess if you want to introduce yourself a little bit and kind of explain your transit use that that you know why you use public transit?
Hoffman:Yeah, um, so yeah, I'm Hoffman I've been using the bus in Austin for probably six years now since I was 14. I grew up in Austin. I do I love the bus and I hate the bus and that's that's about a summation in my opinion. So yeah,
Chris:definitely should have a driving I love driving also hate it. I can I can understand that. Yeah, exactly. When you were using the bus when you were 14 and in town, like, kind of describe you not to give an address obviously, but like kind of describe like where you lived in the city.
Hoffman:Yeah, so I lived on the east side of I 35. And my mom was a school teacher at Austin High So take the bus home from Austin High after like, theater or something. I was like a huge nerd obviously. And it would take like, sometimes two hours to get home from high school. So that was like my introduction to Austin, but like transit so I'm like, I'm almost desensitized to like the, the length Enos of my trips, but it is, once I started hearing about how public transport was in other cities and like, experienced it for myself, like I don't know, like in Boston and stuff like that. I was like, Whoa, like, it can be so much better. Like, oh, so yeah.
Chris:I have a question. So when you were traveling near 14, on the bus, did your parents ever have any concern like safety wise, we Austin's a pretty safe city. Like, in my hometown, I can't imagine my parents being okay with me like taking a not not a school bus around when I was in, like in high school, or even middle school?
Hoffman:Um, yeah, I think like a lot of the danger, sense of danger has been kind of removed, because of like, phones and stuff. Like I can, like call my parents or something if I'm like, actually got stranded or something. And they could like, pick me up in their car. So I'm kind of like, privileged in that way. Like, my parents could like, pick me up if the bus just like never came, which sometimes happens. So yeah, but it is certainly you, you have a lot of uncomfortable moments on transit, I'd say like, pretty regularly. But it's been fairly rare that I felt in danger. Or, you know, my friends felt in danger. But that's definitely happens. On the bus, for sure. It's not fantastic. But I think my parents just kind of like trusted, you know, you know, learning by doing and, yeah, that included riding the bus for two hours. Yeah.
Louis:That makes sense. Like, you know, that's a good question, too. Because, like, I feel like a lot of parents are probably apprehensive in some cases, but in some cases, I mean, I think he probably did learn a lot by doing that. And like, understanding where things are in your city, like so many people now, I was gonna say somebody's kids now, but even so many adults now just have like, no clue where things are. Yeah, it's like everything is Google to get results? Yeah,
Chris:married one of those adults.
Unknown:Yeah, I feel like I am able to rely on like a sort of, like, mental map of routes a lot. Like, I definitely rely on Google Maps for like, hey, when is this bus coming? Like, am I going to miss this. But I can definitely have a sort of like mental map, I think it's like, definitely a benefit to kids, especially because, like, Cap Metro. While it's not like, completely safe, like, I'm not gonna lie to people and say that, like, it is a good way for you to, like, build, like confidence as a kid and like where you are. And I feel like I learned a lot of like, good navigational skills and just like confidence with like, talking to adults, you know, like, I was, I was scared, like, the first time I got on a bus, I didn't really know how it worked. Like, they don't tell you like, hey, you need this app and stuff. But like, cat Metro, it's like, fairly in the grand scheme of things. Like I consider it kind of child friendly. Just in that, like, I could get on and because of my like, visible use, like, they wouldn't like stop me. They just like it's free pretty much if you're 18 or under so like, I could just like get on and it was like chill. But that definitely like I have a baby face and you know, you know, it'd be different for me, but that's the way I experienced it. Yeah.
Chris:So So with your experience in Austin, do you primarily use public transit to get to work or do you have a car at all?
Unknown:No, I do not own a car. I'm like the most carless person I know. But yeah, I use like public transport to get pretty much everywhere unless it literally can't get me somewhere which sometimes happens like it is like straight up like completely inconvenient for me to take the bus from like my apartment to the Rio Grande campus of ACC so I just like take the l walk 30 minutes every day to school. Not every day but we did stuff like that. So yeah, but I definitely use the bus in lieu of a car and I pronounce that right
Chris:yeah do you ever use the train and Austin to is it pretty much just the boss you mix up scooters or Ubers
Unknown:No Yeah, no I did use I did use the train once I was like oh my god I'm in Europe right now like I was like wow, I felt like very you know cool using the train. I appreciate the train but it is like you definitely notice a shift in demographics when you're on the train versus the bus like it's a lot of like wealthy like white yuppies no offense to them with like bikes getting on the train like on their way to their jobs in like downtown or something. It's not really convenient for like where I want to go.
Louis:I've already used it like it's yeah, the train isn't really it's it's convenient if you live like really close to the train. Yeah. And unfortunately like the route that was goes in for it just out of convenience of the time when it's not through like a super dense part of town for the most part, anybody who like lives on the train line generally lives in a new development like the ones around this train station. That's like, right. Well, yes, basically. And that's why probably you end up with a lot of DS. You're like, what, yuppies on their bikes? Like, yeah,
Chris:they've done a good job with some of the train stations that like they have built more density around it, like Crestview station is really nice because it has all the apartments around it.
Louis:Super cheap to live near. No. There are some income like it like restricted units in those buildings, but it's probably less than 10% at every single one of them.
Chris:I think MLK station has more than most Yeah. But so first is my experience today, I took the train for the first time in years and I was so excited to take because it's been so long and we are trained is actually very nice. Very nice clean inside the upholstery is nice. Like I was looking at that like it has the little cat Metro logo on the on the headdress. It's super comfortable. It was very quiet. And I really enjoyed the experience now getting here using a bus and the train like that whole thing you know that that connection took a while. And I sat there and waited for forever for the train to finally come but yeah, I really enjoyed it. How
Louis:I'm curious. So the the the train frequency is not as good as it should be. Yeah,
Chris:I arrived at the station and it was 90 minutes till the next train and that was after I got off the bus stop to grab a water and then made my trek to the station because like the bus station and the train station, we're not side by side.
Unknown:That's so funny. I feel like stopping to get a water that's the cardinal sin. Public transport. Like you can't ever stop, right? If you miss that one. Water because like, it's gonna be an hour like, you know,
Chris:where the trains every 30 minutes, you know, it's not so bad. But
Louis:I guess do you have any like examples of like, a best experience using public or, or a best in a worst experience? Story? In public transit, any any horror stories, or just like some awesome thing that happened? Um,
Unknown:yeah, I'd say like, um, I get like, a really good feeling within my soul when people help each other out and like getting the bus. Like, when somebody's like, hey, like, that person across the street is waving you down, you know, like, stop for that person. You know, like, I just feel like that's like, you know, that brings out the best in humanity sometimes. And I love it when I sit down like on FL I don't sit down on the bus. But when I stand on the bus, and I like talk to another person, and like, we have like a great conversation. I'm like, yo, this is Austin. Like, this is Austin I grew up in. I have like, a lot of like, homeless friends that I like, get to see on the bus and like, you know, obviously, like, you know, like, a lot of people don't have phones. We don't like organize like ourselves. We're like, I see people I know, on the bus. I'm like, yo, like that person, like, seems to be doing well. And it's on the bus that I like, run into those people all the time. So like, that's, that's my favorite part about the bus.
Chris:Since the community is you and you're probably seeing some like the same faces. Yeah, this
Unknown:is on the same routes and stuff like yeah, like my friend like Eric BC, like, yeah, like great people that I pretty much only ever see on the bus or at Republic Square. And then the horror stories though, like, definitely like, um, this is like, honestly, like the best and worst thing that ever happened to me on this bus this this this is back when I look more like masculine like this dude, like, he was like, in like, a purple suit. And he was like, young man, young man, and then tried to like, convince me to buy silver like.
Chris:So I found the conversation with Hoffman, really interesting, because any experiences I've had on public transit have been pretty seamless. I have never really felt in danger, or at risk on public transit. But I understand that's not true for everyone totally. And as Hoffman talks about as their gender expression sort of changes, that absolutely changes how people interact with you in public spaces. And, you know, transit is no different.
Louis:Yeah, for sure. And I mean, it's it's one of those things that like 99% of the time, you're not gonna have any issues. You know, I I've seen interesting things happen on the bus before occasionally, as someone who does ride the bus. I read more than you, but I still don't read it as much as Hoffman does. I've definitely seen some interesting things. Usually it's harmless. But again, you know, there there's always always potential. But again, I think it's one of those things that you know, safety and numbers. As more people use transit it, things become safer like they do anywhere. You know what I mean? So, yeah, and you actually tried to look into crime statistics a little bit right.
Chris:I did. I tried to find them on cat Metro and they do have safeties to Stapes. Well, they do have safety statistics, but the safety statistics are about
Louis:safety statistics, then have fast you're not gonna be able to do it any of
Chris:their safety stats is about collisions or some type of incident where the bus stopped working or whatever, injuries. None of it is about crime or harassment or anything like that. Now, what I didn't do I didn't look at at Austin police, okay to see what what they may report on on Metro, right. But what I did learn that I didn't know until this this episode was that cat Metro created their own police force. And so now they do have police officers that you can contact when you're on the bus, if you are facing any type of harassment, or you feel like there's a safety issue. And a lot of times those police officers are at transit stops, or they may even be riding the bus with you. So there are some resources out there. And I think cap Metro in Austin at least is aware that, you know, occasionally people run into safety issues and that they're providing sort of security on the bus lines, which is good. Totally Yeah. How often do you feel like those types of experiences happen.
Unknown:Um, as I've, as my sort of like gender expression changes the way I have to conduct myself on the bus changes as well. And I'd say that like, the more like feminine, I look like, I definitely have to change how I interact with people. Like, not making eye contact with certain people, which sucks because like, I want to smile at people, I want to have those conversations that like make riding the bus fun, which I often do have, but sometimes, like people really get the wrong idea and start acting like super creepy towards you. So it's just like, you know, unfortunately, a lot about being able to suss out the vibes, which is not an objective or like, method.
Louis:And I'd imagine to like some of those things. You're like, more comfortable talking with people I would imagine too, if like, it's the more people on the bus, like you get, like safety in numbers, in some cases to where it's like, if you get that, like, you know, if you're on a bus, that's like, not a main line in the system or anything. Yeah, I'd be on the bus with two or three people. And I can imagine that getting very awkward or unsafe. Pretty quick. Yeah,
Unknown:exactly. Yeah. Like if you're alone on the bus with like a weirdo. It's like, it's just you in the bus driver and you're like trying to make eye contact with him for this weird mirror and you're like, hey, like,
Louis:you got me.
Unknown:Like, yeah, but mostly, I'd say it's chill mostly have a good time. Mostly just, you know, like, pop my headphones on start dancing. Like I shouldn't be on the bus, you know? Um, so
Louis:yeah. If there were changes you could make to the bus system here in Austin. Are there are there some like clear changes you would make? I'm
Unknown:like, yes and no, like, bring back the Dillos. Second of all,
Chris:Yeah, hold on, come back. Bring back the what
Unknown:the Dillos have you guys not heard of those? Those are like the armadillo buses. You're like, Okay, I've definitely heard of this. But it's before my time. Yeah, there were like, I'm sort of like buses that would like be in like certain like neighborhoods, around your neighborhood and stuff. And they were like really fun. They had like armadillos painted on them. And at least in the, in the olden days, they didn't have any air conditioning. And we're like, wooden and they were like fun. Like not in a bad way. Like it was like fun. Where
Chris:these were these actually public transit. Yeah, so it sounds like to get you too. Yes. Lions. Yeah,
Unknown:no, they shut them down. I can't, I don't know when but bring back the Dillos like, I think like, cuz I think that that encourages like a community like oriented mindset amongst people, like people feel more encouraged to get out in their neighborhood and who doesn't want to ride a bus that looks like an armadillo? Yeah,
Chris:I was really hoping that like the whole thing was shaped like whatever. Like you sit in the armor. Yeah, that'd be so bus drivers is like driving the warm. They can do that. We're gonna start a petition. Yeah.
Unknown:I'm the I struggle with like, improvements regarding safety. Just because like, Well, I think the the courtesy stop thing is a great like development for cat Metro.
Louis:I like that too. For just for people who don't know, like, you can request the after 9pm I think it is you can request the bus to stop in between stops on the line. So you have like, less of a walk home in the dark, essentially. Yeah.
Unknown:And I think that's like something that maybe, I mean, this would of course, cause its own issues, but just like be good for accessibility to like people like who are disabled could request like closer stops to and then like, um, yeah, like, I struggle with the safety aspect though, because, like, a lot of the people that I really enjoy seeing on the bus, I know they face like, sort of like police harassment and the name of safety and then, you know, there's other people who are genuinely unsafe on the bus that I would like to see, you know, like, you know, like not harassing people. So, I don't know it's just like, tough to balance that like I don't want to put out any ideas out there that would like harm people that I you know, are the people that actually have great conversations with on the bus, but because of the way they look like might be you know, harassed or something, or people think they're unsafe for no reason, you know, stuff like that. Because there are like lots of like mentally ill like, poor people, like people of color that like ride the bus that like people might interpret as unsafe for whatever reason, but are like, completely cool, wonderful people. And I don't want to like put them in danger, but I also don't like getting harassed on the bus. So Right. Yeah, like, I haven't thought about that too deeply, honestly. Um, yeah, I think yeah, I think kind of It's a cultural problem that I'm not sure cap Metro is equipped to actually combat. I
Louis:think that that's also something that I would imagine happens in a lot of other cities too. And it's, it's also probably a reason that some people don't use the bus to in some cases, because they have one bad experience, or they just hear experiences, like, Yeah, but at the same time, you don't want to, like, there's so many like unhoused folks and whatnot, too. And people who like rely on like, they really rely on those buses and like it sure it might like be unsightly, or whatever people want to phrase it as I see someone carrying their whole life with them on and off the bus, and maybe having a hard time with something or having a bad day, or whatever it might be. But like, you don't want to remove those like that is so critical to that person to be able to get around to be able to get access to the resource.
Unknown:Exactly. There was a dude I met at Republic Square who said he walked to Austin from Dell Valley, like, you know, there's like shit like that, that happens because people need to move. And they need buses to do it oftentimes, and like, they're, those people are just as deserving of the buses. I am, as you know, like a white austenite student,
Chris:I've ever considered that the buses are really sort of the display of society, but also like the really the problems of society. So like, it's, that's interesting, it's like, if you are gonna be an avid public transit user, you have to be comfortable seeing the flaws in our community, because those are gonna be really prevalent. And I've never really thought about it that way.
Unknown:Ya know, like, puts, like, a lot of like, Austin kind of on display, the haves and the have nots, because like, you know, there's still, there's still people who are wealthy that ride the bus here, you know, because it is like, in a lot of cases, like super convenient, and we need more of them to read. We need more of them to ride the bus. Yeah, um, but yeah, you definitely, like definitely see, like a lot of Austin's problems exhibited on public transport for sure.
Louis:I'm curious. So do you have any tips that you would share with somebody who, for example, like our friend Michelle, who is her first time riding the bus? In Austin, when we went out? Do you have tips for folks who are like we'll call it like transit, curious how to how to take the first leap, or like little tips and tricks you've picked up along the way that you you'd think you'd want to share with
Unknown:that's so funny. Yeah, I think I'm, I'm gonna try and think of like how I usually get on public transport. And I think my first step is usually opening the cat metro app way before I have to get on because it takes forever to load. And it's really embarrassing. You'd be like, sitting there, like in front of the bus driver, like trying to get it to load. And be being upfront with your bus driver. Like they're very like understanding, like, if you don't have fare, and you know, like, you want to get on the bus, like, you can just be like, hey, like, can I scan later? Like, I forgot to buy a ticket, you know, like, I do that all the time. You know? You know, if you're a student just be like, I'm a student get, you know, like, they don't Yeah, like that people are usually very understanding. I think I'm not sitting down on the bus
Louis:because this was a funny one that you mentioned to me on the way here because oh, let's sit right here not sit
Unknown:down on the bus. Because if you're on like, I think it's the for like, you're gonna see a lot of cat Metro employees like writing to and from work, and none of them are sitting down. And I'm like, Hey, you guys know something? Like, they're, they're like bedbugs, like people do. Like I tell. I talked to one guy he's like, oh, like you see what people do on the like, he's like, he's like, I saw a dude with his bare like ass like, like sitting down like on the seat yesterday. And I'm like, you know what you're right like, they're like drunk people like peeing themselves. Not kissing.
Chris:I like orphans not a spokesman for cat.
Louis:I will say on the last bus that we just the last one here. There was an employee on the bus standing Yes, not eating never hold the whole bus was a there's only like six people on the new
Chris:tangent episode is transit tangents investigates. Yeah, why don't you sit on the
Unknown:swab these seats.
Louis:Anyway, oh my god, wait, wait. We can swap the seats. I will have my partner Jerry who works in a research lab at UT find out what is on the seats. We'll bring it to Kevin.
Chris:I want to also remind you, we're trying to convince people to use it That's okay.
Unknown:Let me say this always use a Piro if Piro on almost all the Austin transit as you should do everywhere. Yes, they have payroll, that's great. Oftentimes, like this isn't as common as before, but you can ask them for a mask. Oh, there's like, yeah, there's like good stuff that they have going on. So like, always, you know, I hold onto my little pole, you know, and I, yeah, and I get my Purell on, and I feel very safe. I'm locked in on those buses. Yeah, no, I like, I actually do love the bus. But certainly like, by mirroring the behavior of off duty cap Metro employees, I've definitely, like picked up some new behaviors, some new tips, some new. So, yeah, but honestly, like, apparel is a good one, too, I think, Oh, yeah. And always, like, always be at your like, Stop, like, at least five minutes before it's coming. Always like, because those things like usually they're like, three minutes off, like at least you know, and you'll
Louis:see it on your app. And it'll be like, sometimes it'll say that it's gonna be there. And it'll be three minutes late. And sometimes it'll be three minutes early. And you missed it. And now you gotta wait. Yeah, 1530 minutes, sometimes more, depending on the round. But yeah,
Unknown:sometimes like an hour. Like I've had to wait another hour before, like, but like, yeah, if you have an iPhone, no Apple Maps, no Apple Maps, use Google Maps. It's, it's been like 15 minutes off before on Apple Maps, like many times for me, like Google Maps is
Louis:the Google person for it as well. But a lot of people are Apple people for transit, versus an apple person I find more success with now.
Chris:I call me out. I do use Apple Maps a lot, especially if I'm in another city. I will say I will show this on the episode. But I have I had three maps pulled up to get here. I had the cat monitor app, I had the Google Maps, I had Apple Maps just to see like what options they gave me and all three gave me very different options, including Apple was like, You should take a lift to the train station. Like, that's not that's not transit. That's not the transit we're looking for. But what was also really frustrating and this is a hot tip for anybody trying to use cat metros app, you can't search in most cases, you can't search by your destination, you have to search by the bus stop. And so like, I had to go to Google Maps or Apple maps to find the bus stop to then put that into the cat Metro and like see how it was gonna work. And
Louis:that's the
Unknown:train. There are the shiny widget Christmas trainee. Oh, wow. It is actually cute. Okay.
Louis:I wanted to make sure everyone said
Chris:so it was just absurd, but it will say so I didn't use Google Maps. And I had a really interesting experience where it was like, Okay, take the sidewalk into the woods, and I crossed the creek, and I took the sidewalk into the woods. And it just came to an end and it turned into a footpath to a parking lot. And so I'm like, Yeah, I'm like, I am gonna get killed in the woods. But it was really pleasant. I had a nice little hike, I ended up on a dirt bike trail. And then I ended up in a parking lot at ACC. I wouldn't call it accessible friendly. You know, if you if you have a wheelchair or something or you
Louis:can't walk looking up, like instead of looking up how to get to your final destination look for the closest transit stops near you. And then you might want to look at a couple of them because yeah, and the app sometimes and Michelle Michelle, our friend Michelle had this issue. she typed it in and told her to do the same thing from her apartment. It was only like a 10 minute walk to a stop from her apartment. And I was telling her to get into her car and drive like 15 minutes to park and ride.
Unknown:Like okay, yeah, I mean and there's like certain like stops have their own personalities. You know, like, there's like stops I know I'll show up like five minutes earlier, whatever it usually is. But like, if I don't know a stop, like I'm probably going to try and be like at least like 10 Like if I don't know the route because there's some that are like, you know, like the five like went through a period where it was like 10 minutes early every time and I was like you are like what? Yeah, there's just like phases that they go through the buses are like teenagers you just need to like keep an eye on them and like yeah, make sure that they're you know, doing what they're supposed to do so
Chris:my bus stops personality was sad and lonely today. It was just
Louis:we had that we were at a very we left from kind of the University of Texas Austin area I don't know why I just like said that out loud. The whole blank that was me like explaining it for people who don't live here maybe but like the UT mall stop basically there's a ton of people getting on and off then there's like buses every like, minute or two almost. But I curious I kind of missed this earlier. I want to make sure I ask you this so you use the bus to commute to both work and school? Yes. Just personally like I if I remember taking the bus somewhere to like get there at a certain time. I'm like leaving where is it? How feasible. I mean, obviously, you know you don't have a car so you don't have really another choice. Like do you find it difficult to be able to like be on time to work in school?
Unknown:Um, absolutely like so like my work isn't in person like a lot of the time and but whenever it is like I'm probably leaving like to I'm leaving to get there 30 minutes early because you never know when like a bus is, like arrive at your workplace. Yeah, exactly. Like there is like a very like Austin bus experience. I feel like it's just like being like really hot and you've been waiting for a bus for like 15 minutes. And then it just like goes past you. Like and I feel like I feel like you just need to prepare for those moments of just being like, Cap Metro like God bless you. And yeah, like, yeah, and unnamed comedian once said, you know, if you're not 30 minutes early, you're late. And it's like, very true.
Chris:I hate that phrase. I think if you have a 15 minute grace period, anywhere you go, yeah, unpopular, unpopular opinion.
Unknown:If it makes you feel better the unnamed comedian was so I don't
Chris:believe in my name. We'll just leave that part out. Actually.
Unknown:Yeah. Replace it like oh dubbed me over basic. Like
Chris:when we started the podcast, we started with challenging the statement of like, Oh, I love blink City. In this case, Austin like Oh, I love Austin. I just wish we had public transit. What would you say? If that statement was made to you? Um
Unknown:I would say like the public transport is there but it's kind of like self perpetuating use it or lose it situation. I feel like not enough people take advantage of like what is there but I also can't necessarily blame the average consumer for that because sometimes it is like not that great um, but yeah, I would encourage more people to you know, kind of put their money where their mouth is regarding like ego consciousness and like like hate Austin traffic and like actually kind of do what they can about it which is read the bus for most people and also just like pay more attention to what's like going on around you regarding like what you know, like City Council chooses to pass I'm a big electoral politics head just kidding. But I Yeah, no, I think like people should like give more input on what they think is good and you know, just like kind of like pressure people if you see a problem like you know, what's your public transport like tell somebody about it? There's it's like, you know, a multi multi multi multi million dollar like projects like it's a lot to manage like they might not even know that your problem exists if nobody's telling them about it so yeah.
Chris:My problem today is that I was
Unknown:that's never happened on
Chris:my problem today is that I was literally next door to the North Austin Medical Center which is a major hospital in north part of the city there's no bus stop right not a hospital not while one bus stop at the hospital and to get to the closest one it's a 15 minute walk Yeah, or it's a trip to the woods that's
Unknown:exactly what you want to do with people who are ill make them walk
Chris:through the yes or or somebody who's trying to visit a family member who's ill or for whatever reason you have to go I mean, how many how many people who are disadvantaged go to the ER because they can't afford to go to other medical facilities like it's it's a it's a really a big gap I think in the North Austin solution without Metro So like you said see something say something
Unknown:you know, so called a central workers like nurses yeah transportation stuff so yeah,
Louis:and I will say there's like in at least here depending on where you are a lot of city council people like want to hear that feedback and can bring it to that Metro you can bring it to that metro or whatever city you're in like I talking to your city council person is like so much more effective than talking to like a US House Rep even or like a senator or somebody there's just like the federal government's there I feel like it just like so slow and they're not really able to solve your problems but locally, like if it's something like we need a bus stop in this one location, like that's so much more feasible to be
Unknown:able to especially like think about how hard it is to ignore an angry neighbor like you know, like those people are you know, a neighbor you know, like so like you know, just like be like hey dude, like Yeah,
Chris:so kind of Metro Hey, dude, we have problems we have a problem and we're gonna write a list for you.
Louis:But I think though overall it sounds like you I mean you're you are successfully able to get around the city using public transportation as your main source of getting around you got to work you got to school so while it has its issues like everything does I mean it's it's a valid option if you can do it other people who are listening who maybe don't yet like you know one tried like converting like one trip a week try convert you know, try it out once or twice see what makes him because again, yeah, it's kind of a use it or lose a situation here and then so many other places where like, if you want to see more investment in this thing, you need to show that you want to use it as it is even so, yeah,
Unknown:so true. And like not like some of my trips are like, you know, like whoa, like this needs have different bus routes but then like some of them are like great and like ultra convenient and you don't have to find parking in Austin which is so awful so like yeah just like yeah the converting to like one trip it's a great way to like get to know the city too if you're new like you don't want to just like spend you know all your day is going to like you know random like places and not really get to like know the people the city. Like if there's a good representation of the people of the city. Definitely people in cat Metro a lot of the time like you meet a lot of interesting folks so yeah, I while it has its problems that I'd love to see fix. I do like recommend it at the end of the day. Like it's a good experience like you know, dare I say you're not a local until you've written cat Metro. So yeah.
Chris:Oh challenge put down Yeah, exactly. Not a local issue know how to use cat Metro
Unknown:transplants.
Louis:Yeah, I think that's a good spot to to wrap it up. Yeah.
Chris:Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. Now we're gonna take the bus home. Yeah.
Louis:Let's do it. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, everybody, for listening to that conversation with Hoffman. Thank you to Hoffman for taking the time to not only be in this episode, but you might notice Hoffman in the next episode as they are make a brief appearance in what's coming up next. The water won't work while at work. Yeah. Which is about highway expansion. here in Austin. We've got a lot more content coming up as well, including some travel outside of the Austin area. Are we ready to announce the travel? I mean that we might as well we can tease it just a little bit. We are going to be doing a couple episodes in Salt Lake City. Yes, Salt Lake City. We
Chris:are coming to you. We have a few friends there that we're going to try to meet up with and have a conversation about how do you see Salt Lake City in a day using public transit that may be one thing we look at,
Louis:as well as our favorite topic of all time, we're going to we're going to have our first conversation about gondolas. Yep.
Chris:Whether you are for them or against them. There is a gondola project that's getting a lot of media outside of Salt Lake City. And so we're going to talk to some folks who that project is actually going to impact and get their get their feedback on it. Yep. But
Louis:if you want to make sure you see all of that though, please, wherever you are listening or watching us right now, subscribe, follow, you know, notifications, whatever it may be. If you want to see more of us online in general, you can follow us on any of our social media. We're on Tik Tok, Instagram, Twitter slash ex Twitter. I don't know. I don't know what we call it. You can get the links to those probably in the description as video but also on our website, which is
Chris:transit tangents.com.
Louis:I was like, I don't know it. So I think you know tangents.com All right. There's a little bit of a question mark on the end of that. So if you end up on some random website that looks like a phishing scam, at your own risk. Joking awesome. With all that being said, thank you all so much for watching, and we'll see in the next
Chris:day I'm saving that
Louis:transparent reset watch me go
Chris:down with my headphones on to my favorite song