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.
