Adventures around Atlanta

Emory Shuttle

Ok - so this may not be as exciting as the title suggests.  However, today was the first time I have used public transport to get from college back home!  Up to this point I have always had a lift both ways from Matthew and Caroline who were driving into college.  Today though, my orientation finished at lunchtime (thankfully for me, after lunch) so I did not want to hang around all afternoon before I could go home, and decided I would get the bus back.  Unfortunately, life is rarely as simple as that.  Although I don't live that far from college there are no direct buses back towards home.  A number of possibilities presented themselves involving combinations of two or three buses and various degrees of walking between stops.  In the end, as it was my first solo excursion out in Atlanta, I decided on the most straightforward.  This meant taking the free (always good) Emory shuttle from college to DeKalb Mall and then crossing over the road to catch the Number 8 bus which stops outside our apartment complex.  Unfortunately, when I arrived at the mall, it was not clear how to find the road I needed to cross.  I ended up walking around the whole of the mall before eventually discovering the correct road.  When I reached the bus stop there was no sign to suggest that the bus I wanted actually stopped there or when the next one may be arriving.  Thankfully, I managed to find a bit of shade in which to shelter as I waited and hoped.  I was on the verge of giving up and going back to the mall to catch the shuttle back to college and wait for a lift, when the bus appeared.  The journey ended up taking 1 hour 20 minutes which, considering it takes only 20 minutes to drive, seemed quite long.  Hopefully I will be able to organise better when I leave so that I can time the connections better.  It may also be that that there are other bus routes which will offer a quicker journey - even if I have to change more often.  It did leave me with a couple of thoughts (which considering this was after a week of orientation, I found quite impressive!).

• So often in towns and cities we presume that visitors and new members of the community understand how our systems work.  We imagine that everyone knows how to get from the shopping mall to the bus stops.  We guess that they already know which bus stops where and when it comes.
• Although British people complain about our public transport system I was surprised by how difficult it was, in a major city, to travel around the city by bus.  In an age when we must consider our environment surely our governments must be doing all they can to make it as simple as possible to travel by public transport.  Having said that, I was impressed by the extent of the Emory shuttle services which do enable people to travel into college by public transport.



An Atlanta bus - in case you couldn't imagine one!

• I was also thankful that I stuck it out at this bus stop because I have since discovered that the last shuttle bus back to college from the mall had already left, and I would have been stranded!

So I am pleased that I have started to make my first forays into and around Atlanta.  I hope as the weeks and months go on, I 'll have more opportunities to explore this city and its surroundings.