One of the nice things about a small-city bus service like Bangor’s Community Connector is that you get to know the drivers – if not by name, at least by face and personality. And they get to know you, and where you need to get to, and when.
Thus I found myself on a recent morning waiting for the Old Town bus on Exchange Street to take me to an appointment at the University of Maine. It’s not a regular stop; it’s one of those intersections where you can flag the bus down (a system soon to change). I had a bag of books and didn’t want to walk to the temporary depot by the pocket park near the Sea Dog restaurant.
The Old Town bus is first to leave. (A detour during the month of August has made this temporarily untrue.) It usually turns onto Exchange Street and then turns right to go up State Street hill. It’s followed closely by the Mount Hope bus, which turns left on Broadway at the top of the hill, while my bus continues up State Street to Orono and Old Town.
On this day, for whatever reason, the first bus didn’t turn at Exchange Street. The Mount Hope bus did, though. I waved and the driver stopped. We recognized each other. “Is the Old Town bus behind you?” I asked him.
“Nope. That was him that just went by the other way.”
“That’s my bus.”
“Get on,” said the driver. “I’ll see if I can catch him.”
I boarded, and he called the Old Town bus. At the top of the hill, both buses waited as I crossed State Street from one bus to the other, and greeted another familiar driver. I don’t know either of their names and I doubt that they know mine, but through a series of light conversations and interactions over a span of time, we’ve come to sort of know one another.
The upshot of this escapade is that I made it to my appointment at the University on time after all, with help from two helpful bus drivers. I suppose designated stops will put an end to this sort of thing. The new system will surely be more efficient and reliable. But there’s something to be said for the neighborliness of our earnest bus system, which may have been what someone was thinking years ago when they changed the name from the BAT to the Community Connector. At first I didn’t like the new name, but I’ve changed my mind. It really does connect the community, in more ways than one.
They’re looking for drivers. Who knows? You could be the anonymous hero of some future blog post.
