SMART: The Southeast Michigan Regional Bus System

Like a lot of people these days I am always looking for a new way to save money. As another way to save money I decided a couple of months ago to begin taking the SMART bus. SMART stands for Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, and is Southeastern Michigan's bus system.

While overall my experience riding the bus has been uneventful and very relaxing I have had a couple interesting things happen on the bus, and I expect that I will have many more.

My most interesting experience happened the most recently. On a recent Monday morning in August I got on the bus like I do Monday through Friday for my commute to work. The bus that I ride during the week is an express which means that it has limited stops and it only runs for approximately two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. After picking up approximately ten passengers at my stop the bus then picked up a gentleman who entered the bus with a hospital personal belongings bag asking the driver if he knew where a particular motel was located because he had just gotten out of the hospital and was lost. The driver didn't know where the motel he was looking for was but the man boarded the bus anyway.

The gentleman decided to sit near me on the bus. He preceded to ask me if I knew where the motel was that he was looking for. I had driven by the motel many times being that I grew up in Dearborn Heights where the motel was located. After telling the gentleman where the motel was and where he would need to get off the bus at, he asked me to hold something of his. While I was holding his water bottle filled with flowers the man pulled a bottle of pills out of his pocket and a bottle of Dr. Pepper out of his bag. The bottle of pop had evidently gotten a bit of a shaking in his bag, because when he opened it the pop began spraying, and most of it landed on me. I was covered in Dr. Pepper from the waist of my sweater to my legs, which were bare since I was wearing a dress.

The man apologized and a regular rider from the back of the bus walked up to give me a napkin to try and clean myself up. I informed the man that we were approaching his stop and that he needed to get off the bus and walk a couple of blocks north to the motel he was looking for. While I felt bad that my work clothes were covered in brown pop stains and that I was sticky, the man who happened to make a mess of my clothes was in worse shape than I was since it appeared that he had gotten out of the hospital after being beaten up.

This has been my most memorable ride on the bus so far, though I have had the experience of being on a bus with a flat tire. Luckily we were able to board the next bus and still make it to work on time.

The SMART bus system does a good job of having it's buses arrive on time and clean. Also for the most part the drivers are friendly and courteous. Most of the drivers will instruct riders where to put their bus pass as well as what bus they need to take if ours is not the one they need to ride to arrive at their final destination.

Overall I am very pleased with my use of the SMART bus system. Besides the fact that I am saving quite a bit of money on gas a month, miles and wear and tear on my vehicle, I also get to relax on my commute to and from work, read books and magazines, and meet new people. Even with the occasional bad experience like the one's described above I feel that the good experiences far outweigh the bad, and make me happy about being a SMART rider!

So, if you are looking for a new way to save money and live in Southeastern Michigan why not give SMART a try, you may find that you enjoy your commute a great deal more than you ever dreamed possible!