This morning’s commute was bizarre. I knew it would be interesting because of the snow the night before and the icy roads this morning. The first leg of my commute was per usual. The only difference was the ice on the sidewalks of Capitol Hill. Once I almost slipped.

Then I waited for the 545 with 20 or so other commuters. The bus came. We all got on. It was packed. Uncomfortably packed. We proceeded to the freeway and then to our first stop to pick up passengers. On the way there the bus driver asked us all to move back as far as we could.

I was at the very front of the bus and we were jammed in the aisle. Nevertheless we made room for a few more passengers. Then it became awfully hot inside the cabin. One guy shouted from the back, “Excuse me [to the driver]. Please turn off the heat.” The driver didn’t hear him. A woman shouted even louder, “Please turn off the heat, it’s hot back here.” The driver turned it off.

So we proceeded across the 520 bridge to our second stop. The bus pulled off to pick up more passengers and let some off. The driver stepped on the gas and the tires started to spin. He tried again and the tires continued to spin. Then for the next 15 minutes he rocked the bus back and forth in a struggle to get off the ice. One guy behind me said, “Why doesn’t he get out and put chains on?”

The driver never got out to put chains on. Instead he get up the rocking until he yelled back to the rest of us, “Ok, I’m stuck. Get off the bus and catch the 545 behind me right now—for those of you who can fit on it.” Then three fifths of the bus emptied onto the sidewalk and headed for the second 545 bus. I realized it was going to fill up, while criticizing myself for not staying on the bus. I figured the driver would get free from the ice eventually.

A few of us in the back of the line noticed that the driver was starting to get free and we started heading to the bus we just got off of. The bus was making progress and we were rushing back to the bus thinking that the driver would wait for the rest of us. One woman ran along side the bus beating on the windows. The driver kept going. A man in a yellow shirt angrily flipped off the driver twice. The rest of us straggler commuters watched as our bus left us stranded at Yarrow Point. The man in the yellow shirt immediately got on his phone to complain about our bus driver.

We waited for 15 minutes and finally another 545 bus came and picked us up. It was also packed, but not completely. As he pulled away from the curb the bus slipped on the ice and he couldn’t get traction for a few seconds. I thought, ‘Oh no, not this again.’ But shortly after thinking that he broke free of the ice and we were on our way.

I was over one hour late for work this morning, but oddly I wasn’t angry, but I do think that our bus driver was an idiot for leaving us stranded at the bus stop. I also understand why I saw so many single occupant vehicles on 520 passing us by. Until public transportation becomes convenient, faster than taking our cars, and comfortable there will always be traffic congestion. After all who wants to be on a crowded bus, standing, with the heat on?