Santa Fe Buses

Santa Fe is a small town; it compares in population to Oruro in Bolivia, or Chiang Rai in Thailand. Yet, it was built in a very dilapidated fashion. All the buildings are low and placed at long distances from each other. Thus, the distances within the various attractions and commercial centers are huge. I was there for too long for hiring a car, but not long enough for buying one. Buses were supposed to offer a solution; instead they offered a fascinating view into the fast changing America.

The Big Box

Between the front door of the bus and the driver, was a big box. It had several methods of accepting money - coins, paper, and cards would do - but it never gave back change. This cannot be due to technological limitations.

Once, I was feeding the big box with coins, when it confused a dime for a penny - the big box is not very smart. Lacking any other coins I added a quarter and began walking into the bus.

"Wait!" shouted the driver in a tone that convinced me he was about to pull out a weapon.

He pushed some buttons and gave me a magnetic card with a printed value of sixteen cents.

"It's for your next trip," he added (what would happen if it was my last day in town?).

The fares for adults are a flat $1 per trip; a 30 days pass costs $20 and a one day pass $2. Special fares apply to other populations.

Bikes, Wheelchairs and Seats

Bikes can be attached to a special device at the front of the bus; a special lift at the back door allows access for wheelchairs.

Once aboard, a significant characteristic of the Santa Fe buses is that they have too few seats. Moreover, most of them are along the vehicle's side facing the windows.

"Would they be enough for all passengers?" I asked myself the first time I saw them. However, I never saw more than a dozen people on any bus.

Choosing a Route

There are few routes and their partially overlap. Most of them leave from the Downtown Transit Center, one block away from the Plaza. Here is the whole list:

Route 1 - The Agua Fria line connects the Downtown Transit Center with Santa Fe Place, going through the airport and Agua Fria Road.

Route 2 - The Cerrillos Road line travels from the Downtown Transit Center to Santa Fe Place through the Cerrillos Road.

Route 4 - The Southside line begins at the Downtown Transit Center and reaches the Santa Fe Place, passing in the way through the Rodeo Plaza and St. Michaels.

Route 5 - The Crosstown line advances from the Downtown Transit Center to the St. Vincent Hospital, passing through De Vargas Center and St. Michaels.

Route 6 - The Rodeo Road line surprisingly connects the Downtown Transit Center with Santa Fe Place; however the task is accomplished this time through the Rodeo Plaza.

Route 21 - Santa Fe Community College and Route 24 - Vista Primera connect the Santa Fe Community College with the Santa Fe Place and the Paseo del Sol West - Country Club.

Route M - Museum Hill line connects that place with the Downtown Transit Center.

Route P - CHAD Park & Shuttle (CHAD means City Hall And Downtown)

This lines makes a small loop from the central plaza around Paseo de Peralta, Old Taos Highway, Murales Road and Washington Avenue.

Schedule

The normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday: 6 AM - 11 PM; Saturday: 8 AM - 8 PM; Sunday 10 AM - 7 PM. On weekends only lines 1, 2, 4 and M operate

Routes follow a Sunday schedule on the Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.

A Saturday schedule is followed on Martin Luther King Day, Columbus Day, Veteran's Day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

The bus company (named Santa Fe Trails Transit) does not operate on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.

Service

Over time I recognized several unfriendly peculiarities of this service:

Once the doors are closed - even if the bus is still standing at the station - passengers would not be allowed to board.

The bus never begins to travel until the last boarding passengers had paid the whole fare.

There are long distances between the stations and due to the convoluted design of the streets' grid sometimes it is complicated to figure out how to travel from one place to another, despite the schematic maps and schedules featured on every stop.

In 2008, Cerrillos Road is enjoying a major re-construction; as a result several stops along Santa Fe's main commercial artery are not in use.

Big Brother

The Santa Fe buses were the first city buses I used in the US. I was shocked to find 3(!) cameras in every bus. Later - in Oakland and San Francisco - I saw buses with yet another camera facing the street ahead of the bus. Stickers warned that the surveillance included audio.

Had any aspiring Genghis Khan ever kept his headquarters in a bus?

In no place was stated that the cameras were a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically of article 12.

Yet, I am confident I won't be allowed to enter the bus company offices with a video camera and film a meeting with its employees.

The data illegally collected (and broadcast in real-time to the company human rights violation center!) can be manipulated and used against the passengers. For example, thieves accessing the data can learn the specific pattern (time and places) used by a given passenger, they can learn where he keeps his money and then wait for him around the corner. Would the bus company take responsibility for such an attack?

The Weirdest Event

One day, someone boarded the bus with something looking like a long sword (or maybe it was a medieval pike), with a funny box at one end.

"Is that your medicine box?" asked him the driver.

"Yes," he answered.

Only then I understood why Santa Fe is sometimes called Fanta See.
From journal Santa Fe's Sharp Soft-Lines