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| - Where I live in Tempe, I can walk to the end of my street, hop on an Orbit which takes me to the main Bus Depot or can drop me off closer to the Light Rail stop off of Mill Ave. Not bad, right?
I actually am enjoying the clustering of a real Bus Depot not anywhere near a residential area with plenty of security, lighting, public enough space in an easily accessible location in Tempe. I actually feel safe hanging out here at night and when I ride my bike to the station, all the bike racks face the security and transit office, so never had an issue with my bicycle here either.
The buses themselves are fine, I have had some very bad moments on the bus with the passengers (ie the 1st time I got on a Phoenix bus, a knife-fight broke out and I had to stay for a police report, another time two guys were reading hard porn right across from me), but its kinda nice mixing with people rather then being in a car-tomb.
What I very much have an issue with is most bus stations. I have had bums passed out (dead?) on the seat, meth heads, a single sign with no seating in the hot blazing sun (I am looking at you Scottsdale), seats no shade around, fights break out at stations. I try to call the metro, they say it isn't their issue. Call the police non-emergency number, they say its the Metro jurisdiction. For this very bad situation alone, I don't take the bus at night since all the stations near the arts area and central are not well lit, full of sketchy people and the buses take too long to come by (if they even stop). For this I am grateful for the light rail for late night Phoenix excursions.
Metro still has a lot of work to do, but considering the improvements I have seen with public transportation and bicycle awareness in the past 3 years, it seems to be going on the right route.
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