While the new bus stop signs are nice, there is NOTHING there for the blind. The QR codes do NOT scan when it is dark out. I am working on a solution for the stops I use at various times. See http://www.ke5asu.com/bus.html

I was on a bus today, and someone was crossing the street in a crosswalk with the light. The bus I was on turned the corner. IF the PEDESTRIAN had not stopped, he would have been hit (and able to sue Caapital Metro, and the bus driver).
Capital Metro bus drivers MUST be aware of crosswalks and check them instead of just turning.

For the record, this was a Startran driver.

There is NO REASON that the capital Metro bus can not stop at the bus stop at Northcross to pickup / drop off passengers instead of pulling up to the sign for the "layover point". Todays driver was just the straw that broke the camels back. I'm tired of it, so I am posting today's details here, and will be looking at attending a Capital Metro board Meeting.

Today's details:

route 325 block 01 time 2:42 PM bus number 2005

It has happened SEVERAL times before.

I recently got an HTC EVO phone, which is an Android phone. I was thinking of writing an application to find the bus based on GPS, but when I searched the Android Marketplace, I found a FREE application called Public Transportation. It uses the GPS for the from location and you type in where you are going. It interfaces with Google maps public transportation and returns the next three trips. It is better and faster than austin@dadnab.com.

This afternoon while I was on a Route 325 Westbound across from Target, the bus was stopped (ahead of schedule) and there was another bus driver waiting for Route 240. The Route 240 bus simply drove around the Route 325 bus and kept going. It got a red light at Ohlen and 183. The driver who was waiting for the Route 240 got on the Route 325 bus and got OFF at 183 and Ohlen and transfered to the Route 240 bus. This is not the first time I have seen a bus driver pass up someone, but it is the first time I have seen it happen to a Metro driver, and they drivers helped each other.

Is any media watching Airport and Lamar or other railroad crossings that the MetroBus crosses to see if they stay on schedule. I doubt Capital Metro took the scheduled time of the buses crossing the train track into account when they designed the schedule.

The MetroBus needs to ALWAYS stop at the sign for the route that they are before speeding down to the "Bus must pull up to here for layover" signs. Routes that go to the Northcross Transit Center FREQUENTLY just speed up to the layover sign to drop off and pick up passengers. Why don't they stop at the bus stop FIRST, then go to the layover sign?

Why are there NO "CONNECTOR BUSES" at ANY MetroRail Station besides those DOWNTOWN? I would like a "Metro Connector" to go from Howard Station to TCEQ, especially since there is no longer a bus stop there for the Local Bus.

Again it appears that Capital Metro cares more about downtown Austin than any other area. Perhaps there needs to be an additional tax called Capital Metro Preference Tax and only collect it on purchases made in the downtown Austin business core.

The monthly MetroAccess pass is only sold at the Capital Metro store on Congress, which is only open Monday - Friday, and closes at 5:00 PM. All other monthly passes are available at HEB. Why can't Capital Metro also have the monthly MetroAccess pass available for sale at HEB? The MetroAccess 10 ticket ride books are, and that is most likely the reason they are used the most. Riding MetroAccess to and from work, 5 days a week, it would be cheaper to have the MetroAccess monthly pass.

In today's (Nov 29, 2009) Austin American Statesman John Kels writes about Capital Metro. He talks about how the train that isn't even running yet had a fare increase. He says that perhaps Capital Metro should adopt "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as there theme song and suggest Asleep at the Wheel play it if they are still around when the train pulls into the station.