Driver2165

I had a rough day on the 18 yesterday. I've had much rougher, but I had a splitting headache all day and everything seemed to just rub that spot on my head the wrong way. I very nearly (within less than an inch, both cases are miraculous) had two accidents. One guy ran the red light at Lake and 1st Ave. about five seconds late, catching me in the middle of calling the street ("Lake St! Big K in the sheeeeeeeei--"). The other guy made a right turn in front of my while I was pulling out of the stop. He was going very fast, and very nearly hit the bike on the rack. That could have made things interesting. Later on that evening somebody was having issues with my going 20 mph down Nicollet. Well at the same time I was having minor issues with the two cars ahead of me going 20 mph. The guy in the SUV behind me couldn't see them though, so he just assumed it was me. He decided to swerve violently and flash his brights right into my mirror. I showed him what it was like to sit behind a bus that was stopped in the middle of the street for about 45 seconds.

The highlight of the night, however, was when I showed up at 8th and Nicollet at roughly 5pm and a lady boarded and told me that her transfer is expired, but she's been waiting a long time for the bus. I get this all the time, it's a computer that reads the transfer so there's no leeway, but I usually just look at the time and give the person a ride if it's within 30 minutes or so, depending on the time of day. Keep in mind (for those not "in the know") that 5pm is, in fact, the heart of rush hour, and on the 18 line, a bus comes through downtown at least every five minutes during rush hour. I looked at this lady's transfer and it was expired by two hours. I figured maybe she had a more recent one so I said "This is expired by two hours." She became belligerent and exclaimed "Yeah! I told you I was waiting a long time!"

"Huh?"