Back to car commuting

So, the office is moving to the north end of the DTC in a couple days now. I've scoped out what a public transit commute would entail, and I think, for the time being, I'm better served by driving in. It's a 30 minute difference, assuming the *worst* drive-time that Google Maps shows, and could be even better if I get lucky.

So, this blog will be going on the back burner again for the foreseeable future, though I have a post that I haven't published yet that I may still put out.

Happy commuting!

To enter or exit the train...

This week's been interesting. Apparently, starting Monday, the W Line's doors don't automatically open except at the end of the line. There is an announcement  ("to enter or exit the train, press the door button when lit," or something to that effect), but it's not unusual for that to play before the train's stopped.

The timing's not always great.

It's also not unusual for folks to not know what they now need to do. I wonder how many missed trains have happened as a result...

Emergency vehicles and light rail crossings

On occasion, I've wondered what happens when an ambulance or fire engine needs to cross a light rail line. Today's morning commute reminded me of that question: as the train was pulling in to one of the Denver stations, a fire vehicle was needing to get across.

I wasn't sitting far enough forward in the train to see details, but the fire vehicle crossed the tracks before the train crossed the road, so I'm assuming that the train operators have some way to release or shut down the crossing gates.

What's the most disconcerting thing...?

Waiting for a train, with a larger-than-normal crowd (guessing there was a Rockies game), and having only one car show up...

That'd be my pick, for now...

RTD's Lost and Found…

Not long ago, the older daughter thought she'd lost her bus-pass. The one that her college issued to her. It's not like it's all that expensive to replace through the school, but it's time-consuming and inconvenient, so I offered to check in with the RTD office to see if it'd been turned in, since I'm only a couple blocks from that office at work.

I was kinda surprised, though, when they told me that the lost and found was at the other end of 16th Street Mall. I didn't have the time then to go all the way to the other end of the Mall, dredge through whatever they might have there, and make it back before my lunch-break was over, so I went back to work, planning to make the longer trip the next day.

Turns out it wasn't needed, though — The missing bus-pass was located at home, and all was well with the world.

Fast forward to today. While I was heading to my train home, I happened across an office key-card lying on the ground near the ticket machines at Union Station. It had a name and photo on it, so it wasn't borderline-impossible to at least try to figure out how to get it back to the owner, hopefully sparing them the trek to the other end of the Mall, and the dredge through whatever piles-o-detritus might be there.

So far, I've not had any luck, though — I found the owner on LinkedIn, and have reached out to them there, but haven't heard back from them since. I also looked them up and found what seemed to be a viable address, so I figured I'd at least make the effort to take it there directly, but with no luck (admittedly, that's only been a few minutes now, so it's just a wee bit soon…).

We'll see if they get back to me.

Some riders…

For various reasons, I found myself in need of taking advantage of the Call-and-Ride service that RTD offers on a regular basis from the Federal Center Station to home today. Nothing major, just a matter of inconvenient timing and ridiculous heat outside.

Having boarded the vehicle, I spent a few minutes chatting with the only other passenger, who advised me that the bar-and-grill place I mentioned to the driver as a landmark "used to have a great burger-fries-and-a-beer" deal. He didn't strike me as an unpleasant fellow.

That made his parting shot at the driver all the more surprising. He wasn't particularly aggressive about it or anything, but (as I submitted to the RTD customer feedback site)…

[The driver] was told by a fellow rider that his attitude was not good, and that customer service was lacking. While I cannot vouch for the time before I was on the vehicle, at no time after I'd boarded did I see any evidence of either.

 It took both myself and the driver by surprise:

[The driver], when faced with the accusation, behaved quite professionally, and even after the other passenger had gotten off at their destination, he handled it calmly and professionally.

Now, maybe something happened before I got on. Obviously, I have no way of knowing. But the driver was unfailingly polite in my presence, so I can't imagine what what the other passenger was thinking.

Still, in all fairness, I felt I had to weigh in.

Bushfire underway

So, I'm sitting here on the afternoon train, and the driver just announced that there's a brushfire at or near the next station. That happens to be the station I get off at as well.

So we get to sit for a few minutes while that gets sorted out.

Whee!