The next morning bus commute

In the back of my mind, I just knew I’d shouldn’t have blogged about how smoothly that first morning bus ride was.

I needed to get into work a bit earlier today, so I took a different bus, the D Flyer, from a nearby park and ride. On the bus, I popped open my laptop to do some reading, and shortly after, I heard:

“D Flyer, mechanical emergency”

It took a sec to register, but then I realized that there was no sound coming from the bus—no engine noise, no whiny electrical noises. Uh oh. So much for getting into work early. The bus driver called in to the mother ship, and then quickly herded us out to a nearby bus stop. After only a few minutes, another bus stopped to pick us up, and we were on our way again. The first driver got us back on another bus within minutes on one of the coldest days of the year. I’m sure the he’ll never read this, but …

Thank you, Mr. D Flyer driver from Feb. 16.

This new bus, the 1D, only got within about 6-8 blocks of where I needed to go, so I figured I’d just have a brisk morning walk through the city … if I could figure out which way to walk. It’s probably good that I looked a little confused, because a woman that had boarded the D Flyer with me earlier asked if I knew where I was going. “Uh, well, I know I need to get to the USX building.” She told me to walk to the nearby T stop and take the T to USX. So I did. It’s free to ride in town, and it was about a thirty second ride right into the base of USX. I consider myself a fairly savvy city traveler, although not so much in Pittsburgh, as I’ve never really had to, but I’d have never thought to take the T five blocks. I’m sure she’ll never read this, but …

Thank you, Ms. D Flyer rider who recommended the T.

In the end, I only lost about 10-15 minutes, met some nice people, and learned a few things along the way, so I’ll consider it a good morning, especially when it had the potential to be a very bad one.