Paratransit, something good for a change
Jul. 24th, 2006 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittytechLately there have been so many bad experiences with Paratransit services, so I wanted to write about a good experience I had for a change, if only to prove that it's not all bad.
I was traveling to see a client this afternoon. he lives fairly far away from me, and in Milwaukee County we have the ability to use one of the local cab companies for Paratransit services; (Transit Plus). Anyway, the fair, before the transit subsidy was supposed to be about $38, and last week I paid $24 each way. I was pleasantly surprised though when the driver pulled up in front of the building and told me that my fare was only going to be $15.25. I figured that I'd give him $20 for such a long ride. I normally carry $5 bills with me because many of the drivers throw a fit when they have to make change. However, because of the fact that this was a long ride I had some 10s with me as well. I knew I had 10s, and I purposely took them out to pay the man. However, without thinking, I handed him 4 $10 bills since I'm so used to them being 5s and told him to keep the change. He got kind of quiet for a minute and then asked me if I knew how much I'd given him. I said that it was supposed to be $20. He said that I had given him $40 and handed me back 2 of the 10s. I'd like to think that anybody would have been honest about that, but unfortunately many aren't. It was a little thing, but I was really impressed with his honesty because he really could have taken advantage of me but chose not to. I've had experiences where people haven't been honest, and $20 is quite a chunk of money to be short all of a sudden.
I just wanted to write about this since so many times we (and I definitely include myself in the "we"), complain a lot about the negative things, but don't always stop to notice the positives. I thought it'd be a neat story to tell just to remind us all that there are definitely still good people out there.
I was traveling to see a client this afternoon. he lives fairly far away from me, and in Milwaukee County we have the ability to use one of the local cab companies for Paratransit services; (Transit Plus). Anyway, the fair, before the transit subsidy was supposed to be about $38, and last week I paid $24 each way. I was pleasantly surprised though when the driver pulled up in front of the building and told me that my fare was only going to be $15.25. I figured that I'd give him $20 for such a long ride. I normally carry $5 bills with me because many of the drivers throw a fit when they have to make change. However, because of the fact that this was a long ride I had some 10s with me as well. I knew I had 10s, and I purposely took them out to pay the man. However, without thinking, I handed him 4 $10 bills since I'm so used to them being 5s and told him to keep the change. He got kind of quiet for a minute and then asked me if I knew how much I'd given him. I said that it was supposed to be $20. He said that I had given him $40 and handed me back 2 of the 10s. I'd like to think that anybody would have been honest about that, but unfortunately many aren't. It was a little thing, but I was really impressed with his honesty because he really could have taken advantage of me but chose not to. I've had experiences where people haven't been honest, and $20 is quite a chunk of money to be short all of a sudden.
I just wanted to write about this since so many times we (and I definitely include myself in the "we"), complain a lot about the negative things, but don't always stop to notice the positives. I thought it'd be a neat story to tell just to remind us all that there are definitely still good people out there.
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Date: 2006-07-24 09:24 pm (UTC)Good to hear a good story for a change
Date: 2006-07-25 02:13 am (UTC)A similar thing happened to me once. A bunch of us ordered delivery in the college dorms some years back. We all tossed in some cash to pay and told the guy to keep the change. He told us we'd given him $15 too much. Turns out, I'd given a $20 instead of a $5. Who says there are no good people left in the world!