Sunday, August 29, 2004
I had quite an adventure getting up here to Ithaca last weekend.
I had a 11 AM flight out of Newark airport to Pittsburgh, where I was supposed to catch a 12:30 connection to Ithaca. I dutifully arrived at Newark at 9 AM, and after a hasty goodbye to my coworkers, checked my baggage and sat around for a couple hours until my flight began to board. Our US Airways plane sat on the runway for the next 3 hours, until finally the captain muttered something about bad weather and let us off at the gate from which we boarded. It turned out that the connection which I had missed while sitting on the runway was the last flight out of Pittsburgh to Ithaca. A US Airways agent gave me a new ticket, and told me to pick up my baggage, take a cab to LaGuardia, and get on a 5:30 flight to Ithaca.
As it turned out, they managed to lose my baggage in the process of transferring me to the flight out of LaGuardia, and I spent the next 3 hours in Newark Airport, standing in line and talking to various agents who rudely brushed me off and generally did not help me track down my bags. By the time I found out where my baggage was, I had missed the last flight from LaGuardia to Ithaca, as well. When I tiredly explained my situation to a US Airways agent, she told me that she would give me a ticket for a flight the next morning, but that I would have to pay for overnight housing myself. I explained very clearly that it was cheaper (and faster) for me to take the train up to New York City, and from there take a bus to Ithaca, than it was for me to stay overnight at a hotel at Newark Airport. The agent still refused to offer me a free hotel room, and yet, she looked somewhat surprised when I asked to have my ticket refunded, so that I could get on the train to NYC.
(Ironically enough, my bus from NYC to Ithaca broke down in the middle of upstate New York, so that we were stuck in a 40 degree night from midnight to 1 AM.)
Of course, this is just an amusing story, but I have noticed over time (see the second entry from April 27th) that there is, in America, a definite culture of low expectations in public transportation systems: both from the workers who maintain these systems, and the people who use them. From the Greyhound worker who refused to sell me a bus ticket because she wanted to get off of work early, to the US Airways agent who seemed surprised that I would not allow the airliner to rip me off, it seems that we in America have come to accept that using public transportation is supposed to be an uncomfortable, time-consuming process. This is a contrast for me to the public transit systems of Korea, that are by and large efficient, inexpensive, and run by helpful and motivated workers.
I haven't been able to come up with a good explanation for this culture of low expectation, when it comes to public transportation systems in the US. However, I have often noticed in America a strange sort of worshipping of private transportation, and in particular the private automobile, which might lead to a disdainful sort of outlook by Americans on public transportation. After all, if working for a public transportation company means your customers are the "losers" who could not afford private automobiles and jets, you aren't likely to be motivated to work very hard, are you? It is a rather inglorious job, at best.
And I don't really know what to make of the American obsession with automobiles, but maybe I should comment on some of the ramifications of such a culture. More on that later.
I had a 11 AM flight out of Newark airport to Pittsburgh, where I was supposed to catch a 12:30 connection to Ithaca. I dutifully arrived at Newark at 9 AM, and after a hasty goodbye to my coworkers, checked my baggage and sat around for a couple hours until my flight began to board. Our US Airways plane sat on the runway for the next 3 hours, until finally the captain muttered something about bad weather and let us off at the gate from which we boarded. It turned out that the connection which I had missed while sitting on the runway was the last flight out of Pittsburgh to Ithaca. A US Airways agent gave me a new ticket, and told me to pick up my baggage, take a cab to LaGuardia, and get on a 5:30 flight to Ithaca.
As it turned out, they managed to lose my baggage in the process of transferring me to the flight out of LaGuardia, and I spent the next 3 hours in Newark Airport, standing in line and talking to various agents who rudely brushed me off and generally did not help me track down my bags. By the time I found out where my baggage was, I had missed the last flight from LaGuardia to Ithaca, as well. When I tiredly explained my situation to a US Airways agent, she told me that she would give me a ticket for a flight the next morning, but that I would have to pay for overnight housing myself. I explained very clearly that it was cheaper (and faster) for me to take the train up to New York City, and from there take a bus to Ithaca, than it was for me to stay overnight at a hotel at Newark Airport. The agent still refused to offer me a free hotel room, and yet, she looked somewhat surprised when I asked to have my ticket refunded, so that I could get on the train to NYC.
(Ironically enough, my bus from NYC to Ithaca broke down in the middle of upstate New York, so that we were stuck in a 40 degree night from midnight to 1 AM.)
Of course, this is just an amusing story, but I have noticed over time (see the second entry from April 27th) that there is, in America, a definite culture of low expectations in public transportation systems: both from the workers who maintain these systems, and the people who use them. From the Greyhound worker who refused to sell me a bus ticket because she wanted to get off of work early, to the US Airways agent who seemed surprised that I would not allow the airliner to rip me off, it seems that we in America have come to accept that using public transportation is supposed to be an uncomfortable, time-consuming process. This is a contrast for me to the public transit systems of Korea, that are by and large efficient, inexpensive, and run by helpful and motivated workers.
I haven't been able to come up with a good explanation for this culture of low expectation, when it comes to public transportation systems in the US. However, I have often noticed in America a strange sort of worshipping of private transportation, and in particular the private automobile, which might lead to a disdainful sort of outlook by Americans on public transportation. After all, if working for a public transportation company means your customers are the "losers" who could not afford private automobiles and jets, you aren't likely to be motivated to work very hard, are you? It is a rather inglorious job, at best.
And I don't really know what to make of the American obsession with automobiles, but maybe I should comment on some of the ramifications of such a culture. More on that later.
