Geez! why haven’t I been using MARTA all along?!? ugh…this is a case of better late than never i suppose. So, I was conditionally approved to use the Marta Mobility service. “Conditionally” means that they approved me to use it only if any of 4 conditions apply at the time that I want to ride. Turns out that because of where my apartment complex is, one of those conditions (there is no sidewalk to use) ALWAYS applies. I always have to scoot on the road when I leave the complex – it’s not a busy road at all and it’s not far to the cross street with a pavement – but the point is, there’s no sidewalk, so technically, I can use the service any time I leave. I’ve been going to Occupational Therapy weekly since December and started using MARTA to go in January. Everything has been so easy, breezy like Sunday Morning, seamless and CHEAP! I don’t have to deal with any attitudes (obvious or perceived). No need to say to anyone (nicely and smiling somewhat while scowling in my head), “it’s okay. If you don’t want to deal with it, I’ll cancel and request someone else” and best of all, my being judgemental and cancelling rides simply because of the gender and race of the driver (young, black women are the worst) is a thing of the past…using the service has been like a breath of fresh air.
One of the last times I used Lyft, I was walking the driver thru removing the seat from the scooter (the very first step of dismantling it). I believe that my 7-year-old niece would have used more effort that the schupidy gyurl was using to lift the seat. Suffice it to say that when she said that she couldn’t stay any longer, I was glad to see her go because she was irritating me to no end, and I was this close to saying something I should not have.
I am also not limited to using it only for doctor’s appointments and the like; I can use it to go anywhere as long as the destination is within half a mile of a regular MARTA stop. Of course, there will be times when I’ll need to use Lyft or Uber but the angst that sometimes came with that will be minimised. I eh go lie tho, I haven’t used either since I was approved and last week, I got an email from Lyft that stated, “hey, where are you? here’s a 10% discount for your next 3 rides.”
Now, each trip costs $4 and when I went to load my card, there was an option for 20 rides for $68 so naturally, I bought that. A number of times, the fare boxes in the buses were out of service but each time, the driver wrote down the card number and we moved on along. On two occasions, the driver told me that there was no money on the card and when I told them that there should be, they wrote down the number and we went on our way. Last week Wednesday, I finally got my online access organised and when I looked, I saw that I haven’t been charged for any of the rides I’ve already taken and there are still 20 rides left on the card. I did the right thing and contacted customer service to report the issue and figure out how to correct and guess what I was told…”hmm…don’t know what’s the deal. don’t worry about it.” I protested a little…feigned concern, so she told me that if I encounter a driver who gives me a hard time, I could (if I want to) go to the MARTA office and tell them that the card doesn’t work so I need a new one. Well hell, she didn’t have to tell me three times; I thanked her and moved on. I’ll continue to tell them that there’s money and I assume that they’ll continue to log my card number and 1 day, maybe when I look, I’ll have 5 rides left. Not much I can do if someone, somewhere appears to not be doing their job.
The one drawback of using the service is that it needs to be scheduled but, in the grand scheme of things, that is smallting and certainly not the end of the world. I will use Lyft/Uber when things come up and those times will not be doctor’s appointments etc. where I HAVE to be somewhere on time, so I won’t let anything stress me out.
I gone so…allyuh hol’ it dong till next time. Stax