Interviewer: Thank You for Agreeing to Help Me with My Research on Bus Ridership

Kym Butler James EDUC 830 Interview Transcript

Interviewer: Thank you for agreeing to help me with my research on bus ridership.

Subject: No problem. I’m happy to help.

Interviewer: Can you give some information about yourself for the record? You don’t have to give your name, but just your class and major.

Subject: Okay, well I’m a freshman and I’m a Art major.

Interviewer: My first question is do you regularly ride the bus, and if so how often?

Subject: Yes, I ride the bus probably two or three times a week.

Interviewer: Why do you choose to ride the bus? What impacts your decision to ride the bus?

Subject: Um the fact that, I don’t have a license and I don’t drive, so when I want to go somewhere can’t ask my Mom or someone in my family ‘cause they aren’t around. The bus is free and really convenient and it’s a safe means of getting around.

Interviewer: Where are you normally going when you ride the bus?

Subject: Either I m going off campus to visit friends, or I am going shopping like to the Wal- Mart.

Interviewer: You can get the bus to the Wal-Mart?

Subject: Yeah. The TTA bus comes to Franklin Street. We can ride for free and it goes to the Wal-Mart.

Interviewer: What do you do when you ride the bus? What are you usually doing to occupy the time?

Subject: Listening to music on my phone, playing games on my phone, or if I have a friend with me we’ll talk on the bus but most of the time I’m on my phone.

Interviewer: Do you talk to people you don’t know on the bus?

Subject: Um, not really. Like sometimes if there’s a person I have a class with or someone that I see around campus I’ll be like hey and they’ll go like hey but will I start a conversation with someone I don’t know, no.

Interviewer: This may seem like a weird question, but it comes from my observations. Do you talk to the bus driver? Subject: I always say hello how are you and then when I get off I say thank you.

Interviewer: Where does that come from?

Subject: I feel like you know bus drivers, especially with some of the students that can be on the bus they can be so rude and I mean they got you to where you are going safely and hopefully they get you back safely. So that’s something that’s pretty important to me. My well-being while I’m away from home. So I think it’s always nice to thank your bus driver and to just make sure they’re okay.

Interviewer: Are there times when you don’t ride the bus?

Subject: Any time after 8 o’clock I don’t ride the bus.

Interviewer: Why is that?

Subject: Um, just ‘cause at night it feels a little weird, Especially when the bus is in certain areas I feel a little weird and I just don’t really feel comfortable. It has nothing to do with the bus system, it’s just me personally. I just don’t like to be out when it gets late. Even if I have friends with me that’s just one of those things where I would just rather be somewhere I know I’m safe like on campus or in my dorm versus out riding the bus.

Interviewer: What are some of the things that make you feel uncomfortable about riding the bus? I think you alluded to those already?

Subject: Um, for me I guess when you hear people having arguments on the bus that can be really distracting. Like everyone can hear it and no one wants to be bothered with someone else’s stuff. Um , if a bus driver has an attitude, that can really make me not want to ride the bus. Um riding late at night or mostly after the sun goes down I really don’t like riding the bus that much. Um, okay sometimes when bus drivers take breaks while I’m on the bus, it can take so much longer for me to get home and that makes me go “So I’m not going to ride the bus anymore this week”.

Interviewer: Whenever you’re on the bus are there normally a lot of people on the bus?

Subject: It depends. If I’m going somewhere, like when I’m going to Wal-Mart then no. But if I’m coming back, like when the bus is coming back to campus, then yeah. I think also like on the way back the bus picks up people from like the park and ride lots so a lot more people are coming in than going out. So like normally when I’m on my way out it’s not crowded, but on my way back there’s people having to stand up and crowd the aisles. I just really don’t like it when its crowded.

Interviewer: So what do you do if the bus is crowded when you are getting on? Subject: Um, if the bus is really crowded when I’m getting on most of the time I’ll just wait. Unless it’s like really an emergency or like I’m going somewhere to get supplies and it’s almost the time for the store to close then I will go ahead and get on. But most of the time I’ll just wait.

Interviewer: Were you a regular bus rider before you went to college?

Subject: No, I always had my parents or friends or someone to take me the places I wanted to go. The only time I rode the bus was sometimes I rode the school bus home from school.

Interviewer: What are the things that have made you comfortable with using the bus as a primary form of transportation?

Subject: I guess realizing that I don’t have the luxury of calling my mom or go tell my dad that I need to go to this or that place. “Cause you’re on your own so you have to find a way to get around and you have to depend on yourself to do that and get to where you need to be. Like my mom can’t drive me to my classes every morning, I have to walk to my classes. So by having a bus if I have to go somewhere or do something it just kind of like that safe option where I know I’m safe on this bus and I know that I’ll be able to get to where I’m going safely. I have a way to get to where I need to be.

Interviewer: You mentioned walking to class, do you ever use to bus to get to class?

Subject: No. The timing usually doesn’t work out for me. It always seems that the bus is either too early or too late for my getting to class. So I just walk. It seems like there really isn’t like a set schedule. You just have to be out there when it comes. It actually, I feel, it takes longer. I rode the bus once back from class and it actually took me longer to get from my dorm to my class than when I was walking. So for me it’s just not efficient.

Interviewer: During inclement weather do you ride the bus to class or ride more frequently?

Subject: No. No. No. No.

Interviewer: Even if it’s just raining?

Subject: Um I’ve been on the bus like twice when it was raining. It was fairly light rain, like it had just started raining. And I just don’t like being on the bus when it’s raining. And this year it’s been snowing a lot the busses will still run when it snows but I would never get on the bus when there is bad weather out. Just ‘cause I know I wouldn’t wanna drive when there’s bad weather out. So, I can’t even drive really so I know I wouldn’t wanna do it.

Interviewer: So tell me what you have learned about the bus system and the different routes.

Subject: Okay, well I don’t really know about all the routes but I know that there are buses that just run on campus. A lot of people use them to go to classes and stuff, but when I wake up in the mornings, they don’t really fit quite right with my schedule so I don’t really use them too much. Usually by the time I get to the bus stop the bus has already passed and I would have to wait another 15 minutes and by then I could have already walked to class. So I just walk and usually there are other people from my dorm walking too. For me I just like to wake up early and just walk to class. Plus, it a good form of exercise. Then there are buses that go back and forth from the park and ride lots. Um, I know that like a lot of people work on campus and they have to like park far off. So there are like buses that go to the parking lots. I don’t think they run all the time, just certain times of the day. Then there are buses that go to the apartment complexes around town for like all the people who don’t live on campus. There are also buses that like go to the mall and Wal-Mart and places like that. For a lot of people I know Wal-mart is like a popular place to go. There are a lot of buses and they run pretty frequently.

Interviewer: How did you learn about the bus system?

Subject: Mostly from friends and other people I know who go to school here. Like I have friends who are upperclassmen and they helped me out when I first got to school. And you know like at orientation there are people who help you figure out stuff and my first week here I learned how to get to the mall and to Wal-Mart on the bus. One of my friends from high school lives in an apartment, but I don’t ride the bus to her house. She has a car so when I visit her, she comes and picks me up and brings me back.

Interviewer: Are there rules for riding the bus?

Subject: Um yeah. Mostly you just want to not like bother other people. So, like, you usually don’t sit right next to someone. And you don’t talk real loud or play your music real loud. I think it’s rude when people talk real loud on their phones or like when people argue real loud on the bus so other people can hear. People don’t even really talk on the bus unless they are like talking to their friends or like just saying hi or something like that. Usually people are on their phones. Mostly I think the rules are just like be polite and don’t do anything to distract the driver.