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Old Posted May 13, 2018, 12:21 AM
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PLANSIT PLANSIT is offline
ColoRADo
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Denver
Posts: 2,319
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Hill View Post
Here's what I wanted to avoid ranting about but I just can't help myself in this moment: the reason I stopped using RTD. I already know much of what I'm about to say is very much not politically correct, but I don't give a crap because it's the damn truth.

I stopped riding the bus because RTD is nasty. It's just nasty. When I lived in SF there were far more riffraff, and the riffraff were much more in-your-face and aggressive. However, the use of public transportation wasn't actually that unpleasant because the riffraff to normal person ratio was actually pretty good. Same thing every time I visit NYC. But the riffraff to normal person ratio on the buses of Denver is just awful. Due to this, my commute has been uncomfortable (to say the least) the whole time I've been at my new job in Commerce City. Sometimes the smell alone is too much to take. And it seems to have gotten worse recently (especially compared to what I remember from years past).

On the same week I had two experiences on the way to work that were enough to make me swear off RTD forever. The first: I didn't look before I sat and I sat in something disgusting that some riffraff left behind. I had to get off at the next stop, speed-walk home, shower and change, and take a Lyft to work. It was so disgusting I still get the eeby-jeebies every time I think about it. I threw those jeans away.

The second: a few days later this homeless guy sits right next to me. For some reason he was cradling an old hardhat filled with bloody tissues. Not only was his smell so horrific it was making me gag, but I was afraid he or one of his bloody tissues was going to touch me, so I had to move to the front of the bus (which is where the riffraff more typically are) and sure enough, a few stops later, these two rough individuals get on with an excuse about why they only have a fraction of the fare. The bus driver lets them on with the ole apathetic rebuke: "Well I'm not giving you a transfer." One was dragging a heavy five-gallon bucket for some reason. As I realized they were preparing to sit on either side of me, I stood up and got off the bus. That was it for me. No more RTD.

There are many, many more such stories from my adventures on RTD over the past (mere) five or six months. I once almost got cornered into a fist fight trying to convince this extremely drunk guy (I think he was also on drugs) to stop sexually harassing, and gawking at, this poor, frightened girl who couldn't have been any older than 13 (but luckily a fellow rider backed me up). Speaking of fist fights, I once witnessed one that broke out over whether or not a rider's rapping was bad (for some reason he was rapping really loudly and rhyming the n-word with the n-word at the end of every verse). Speaking of the n-word, I once had to endure sitting two seats down from this big ol' crazy redneck that was shouting it over and over and making the whole bus uncomfortable. (The bus driver did nothing. I would have kicked him off and/or summoned the RTD cops.)

I've seen it all - and in such a short period of time. But no more. RTD is nasty. I'm done.

Edit: Come to think of it, it's really just the buses that are bad. The trains really aren't that bad at all. I wonder why that is? :/
This is a typical Thursday for me.
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