Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Dresser chronicles a frustrating morning trying to take the Charm City Circulator (MD) and the apparent disconnect between electronic predictions and reality. The service, with advertised headways of 10 minutes or less, provides free shuttle service in Baltimore City. He writes:
At 10:47 a.m. the electronic sign said a bus would come in 1 minute. A minute later, no bus. Then the sign rolled over to say the next bus would arrive in 18 minutes, leaving me and several other waiting riders puzzled.
A fellow passenger with a Blackberry accessed the Circulator’s website and learned that the 90-degree heat was affecting some buses, while another called the city directly and was told the bus was detoured because of a festival (information that did not match the website). One rider told Dresser that long waits were not unusual: “If you’re in a hurry, I wouldn’t rely on it, but if you’re out just sight-seeing, it’s a cool bus,” he said. So did the bus ever come? After switching stops because of the detour, Dresser finally caught the shuttle at 11:35 — almost an hour after he started. Link to full story in The Baltimore Sun. Link to City’s apology to Dresser.
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