Columnist Susan Snyder: Bus has fares to remember

Friday, July 23, 2004 | 4:33 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 24 - 25, 2004

"Steaming asphalt and scorching gust of wind soak through flip-flops. As heat rises on pavement but Lake Mead beckons, sun soaks into flesh. As I journey through Southern Nevada, Home."

On a CAT bus, with no air conditioning.

OK, so I added that last line. The poem is among those posted on cards inside Citizen Area Transit buses. They are written by area high school students as part of a project sponsored by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada. If you don't ride the bus, you don't get to see them.

And you don't know what it's like to stand in the scorching desert sun at a bus stop, only to climb aboard a bus in which the air is deader than our mass transit funding.

Think trotting across Death Valley in fleece jammies. With feet.

"I bring a book and when I get off at 4:30 p.m., I sit in the break room and read for two hours. Then I come home," said a woman waiting for Sahara Avenue's Route 204 at 5:15 a.m. Friday. "The bus driver says the air conditioning doesn't work because of the weight when the bus is full. After 6, there's maybe 10 people on the bus, and it's cool."

Makes sense. We were waiting for 204 at the corner of Sahara and Fort Apache Road. It's downhill to her job on the Strip and my transfer on the east side of town. Coming back up the hill is hard work in the heat of summer, even for a bus.

We continued talking after climbing aboard -- about tourists, mostly.

"They never know where they are," she said, chuckling, as she recalled a couple who were sure they had missed the stop for the Stratosphere.

"I said, 'No. You have not missed it.' They said, 'Are you sure?' And I said, 'Look, can you see that tower up there?' "

But the previous afternoon's ride up the Strip was the topper, she said. The bus was stopped at a red light in a construction zone near The Venetian -- right in front of a bus stop posted as closed. Still, a bus load of tourists standing there freaked out when the doors didn't open.

"They were just standing there under this big orange sign that said, 'Bus Stop Closed.' They said, 'We've been standing here for an hour.' They were beating on the side of the bus yelling, 'Open the door!' " she recalled.

We both giggled. Maybe the sign should have been attached to a slot machine.

As 204 swayed and lurched along Sahara, she told of the free Las Vegas Monorail ride casino employees had been given. It's a smooth ride offering great views, she said. A $3 ride is too steep for everyday use.

"But it's good," she said. "It's good for the tourists."

Thirty minutes later I crammed myself onto barely standing-room Route 111 to Green Valley. Sardines have more room. Sincere apologies to the woman forced to gaze at my derriere for 20 minutes.

"Light rail," a woman murmured to her seatmate. "But they don't care. They figure we're just poor people."

The seatmate mentioned the new monorail. She shrugged.

"Doesn't help me."

Car problems made riding the bus a necessity for me last week. But it wouldn't hurt for all of us to make it necessary now and then. Never know who you might meet or what you might learn.

And it's air conditioned. Mostly.