LOWELLITES BRAVE THE HORRORS OF COMMUTING

By DAN WONG

It is 3:30 p.m. You have just flunked your math and science tests. You want to go home and nap, but before you can fall into blissful slumber, there's one more obstacle - the bus ride home.

"I hate the bus," senior Wilson Veradi said. "Muni is a four-letter word. I can't wait until I get my car."

According to dean James Thomas, abuot 300 Lowell students drive to school. For the majority of the 2,800 students at Lowell, transportation to and from school means only one thing: Muni.

Seeing students who have cars or who get rides from friends and relatives makes at least one Lowell student jealous.

"When I walk up [Eucalyptus Drive after school] with my friends, I see these people pass by in their cars," junior Kara Lee said. "They're all looking and laughing. It's not fair. Sometimes, when I get rides, I do the same thing to them--mock at the people who are walking."

Most students consider taking the bus a necessary evil and have learned to cope with it.

"It's not exactly a luxury liner," junior Chad Rafidi said. "The seats are uncomfortable and many times the bus is crowded. It's dirty and graffiti is all over the place."

Junior Christopher Chan is angered when a bus passes him by. "That really pisses me off," he said. "I've called up Muni to complain several times, but it didn't help. I'm still waiting half and hour for the bus."

Bob Callwell, passenger information officer of the San Francisco Municipal Railway, explained why bus passengers pass stops. "Bus drivers obviously are not allowed to pass bus stops, but my assumption is that some drivers do so to avoid [large] crowds." Callwell said that buses come more frequently before and after school to handle all the students.

"When I show my youth fast pass, once in a while, [the driver] stops me and says, 'Excuse me, young man. How old are you? Can I see your I.D. please?'" Veradi said. "I show the driver my California I.D. That bothers me."

Callwell offered an explanation. "If someone looks over 17, then the bus driver can ask the person to show some valid identification. For a [high school] student, the best identification to show is probably their driver's license or California I.D."

There are about 155 days in a school year. If a bus ride takes 35 minutes each trip, 70 minutes a day, a student would average 181 hours a year traveling back and forth to school.

To pass the time during the bus ride, some students read, do homework, listen to their Walkman, or talk.

"I do homework," junior Wyatt Tellis said. "If it's written homework, it's not that easy because it's too shaky. But if you have to read on the bus, it's O.K."

"You can't sleep on the bus," he added. "It's too noisy. You sit and stare out the window."

Lee said she reads a book during the ride. "I also read those posters [on the bus ceiling]. If a person in frontof me reads the newspaper, I just look over and start reading it, too," she said.

Sometimes students get into tough situations.

"I was standing in line at the front of the bus stop, but the bus stopped at the other end of the line," senior Marvin Dizon said. "Everybody rushed in, and it was a full bus. As the bus was about to leave, I squeezed in and the doors closed on my bag. The driver told me to get off, but I ignored him and pushed my way into the bus without paying."

One time, a "weird guy" got on the bus, Veradi said. "He was babbling, 'Oh my God! I don't have money! I don't have money!' He dropped 70 cents [into the farebox]. He said, 'Is that O.K.? Seventy cents? Seventy cents?' And the driver didn't say anything.

"The guy just sat down. He was laughing out loud. 'Ha! I only had to pay 70 cents! You sucker!' And he had to sit right by me. He was babbling some nonsense out loud. I just sat there, sweating, waiting for the guy to get out."

Tellis once met a drunk who boarded the bus and passed out.

"He fell asleep in the seat, and he took a piss there," Tellis said. "He got off the bus, and the piss was running down the floor. People started stepping on it because they thought it was soda or something. And it started to smell. Then they knew what it was, but it was too late.

Tellis has also seen bugs on the bus. "I notice roaches," he said. "But they're really small. They crawl out of the vent. I just start blowing them away. It runs toward another person. Can't do anything about it."

Tellis doesn't hate the bus. "It's a good system," he said. "It's just all those annoying things that you have to put up with."