I was really excited about the BCC -- free transportation connecting my neighborhood with downtown and American Tobacco. Since I don't have a bike (yet), I thought it would be a great alternative to hoofing it on those occasions when you want to wear heels... or just be lazy. Unfortunately my first foray was not all I'd hoped for. We got to our stop, checked the sign which seemed to indicate the bus would arrive every 15 minutes, and waited... and waited... and... then we see one coming in the opposite direction; so we think, surely, ours is just around the corner. But, alas, no... and *then* -- a SECOND bus passes by on the route in the opposing direction. What the heck?! At this point we've waited a full 30 minutes, and simply could have walked to our destination more quickly. But on principle, naturally, couldn't leave our post having already invested so much time in it. And I was bound & determined to have my first BCC ride!
At long last, it pulls up. We board and join about 10 other passengers, winding our way down Main, around a loop, until we depart at the Corcoran St stop. The buses are new, clean, and they're hybrid! But, dudes, I have some suggestions:
1) Invest in an iPhone app like Raleigh's RLine that tracks the buses' locations in real-time, so you're never stranded at a stop wondering if you've just missed the bus, or if you're better off walking or taking your chances waiting.
2) signage: (and I may have just overlooked this) but the website indicates that post 6pm, the bus only circulates every 20 minutes, rather than every 15 (which I'd read on the sign). By that timeline, it was still quite late on our route, but at least we wouldn't have been growing impatient on the assumption that it should be pulling up every quarter-hour. read more
