After always being curious about the red buses driving around the streets of Corpus Christi, I was excited to learn about Del Mar College students being able to ride for free with their ID.
In class, we were assigned to get on the bus and find three people to talk to and ask them a few questions.
“Don’t take anything valuable, be aware of your surroundings,” said my aunt when I told my family about my assignment. She had lived in Germany for a while and used the bus all the time there. The first time she used the bus here after coming back home was the last time she ever used public transportation.
Telling your family that you plan to ride the bus causes them to worry. Who am I kidding, they were even more freaked out than me. Though it was going to be new for me, I didn’t share their overwhelming fear.
My parents shared the same points as my aunt, and my sister was also concerned for me; She asked if she could accompany me on the bus ride just to make sure I was safe. I appreciated her concern but politely declined. She then wanted me to share my location and give her updates for what seemed like every minute.
The route I took was over 50 minutes; I was looking through the RTA maps online when I saw a route long enough that was somewhat close to a family member’s house.
The first thing I saw once on the bus was two separate sections, one for handicapped people and a section of more elevated seats for mobile people. Whenever someone comes in a wheelchair there are three different sections where they can sit. The driver must lift the seats to give room for the person, and the driver secures their wheelchair so that they can stay in place and stay safe.
Talking to people for me is kind of hard. It’s hard for me to start a conversation, I would need someone to start a conversation with me just in order for me to talk. It’s something I’m working on, and I think this assignment helped me at least a little bit.
After being politely declined by three people for an interview, you kind of start to doubt yourself and think maybe “I should do this another day, doesn’t seem like anyone wants to talk,” but after about 20 minutes someone said yes to wanting to be interviewed.
I met Irene Guerra, who works as a nurse for a nursing home. She is 45, has one brother and a stepson with her husband and she takes the bus sometimes when her husband has to use the car.
“I like to work around older people, my mom worked for 20 years,” Guerra said of being a nurse. When asked about her bus riding experiences on a scale of 1 to 10, she said in the middle.
Another passenger I spoke with was Ricky Garza. He’s 60 years old, originally from San Diego, and was in prison for 15 years. He was released from in 2022, has no parents and one brother in jail for life. He was a nice guy and open to talking. He used to live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before prison but ended up in Corpus.
“I went with a buddy down here two years ago and he screwed me over, lost my truck, lost everything. That’s why you can’t trust guys,” Garza said.
When I told him I was in college he sympathized with how hard it was to get a job now even with a bachelor’s or masters, he also told me he doesn’t like to stay doing one thing.
“I kind of do a little bit of everything, I never just wanted to stay put, I don’t like to just be stuck on one thing,” Garza said.
The last person I talked with was a woman named Lisa Rudnicki. She is a cook for a nursing home, 49 years old, and has three kids and grandkids. The day we talked was the anniversary of her son’s passing five years before. We talked about how she deals with that day and how she manages to keep going. She’s getting back on her feet and moving into a new apartment and the luck she has with always getting the higher level in every apartment she’s lived in, and we had a nice laugh about that.
She says most of her family lives in Grand Prairie and that what keeps her here is her son and that there are not enough buses in the city and how every store is far. I asked how rewarding it was working for a nursing home.
“To me when you feed the residents and you put a smile on their face you know you’re doing something good,” Rudnicki said. “If I can make somebody’s day, I’m grateful.”
Being able to talk to strangers was something I thought would be scarier, but you just tend to realize that a lot of people are very open and welcoming to talk to.
Nothing bad happened to me on my route, the stigma that public transit is something we should be scared of just because of a few bad apples is preposterous. Public transit is great and I do hope to use it more in the future.
