Project Ponders

When looking at the composition of my project, two questions really bring into focus the purpose of what I am doing. "Why is my project important", and "how am I connected to my project", really define the foundation of this effort. In an effort to discover the Nashville Metro Bus culture, originally I just wanted to figure out simply what this culture is. Who makes up the bus ridership? Why do they ride the bus? Do different bus routes have different cultures? Those were all major questions I am focusing this project around. During my first interview, however, I heard something that really snapped this project into perspective for me. The interview said that the majority of people on the metro bus, while certainly not all, are lower income "blue collar" individuals. While he mentioned that in recent decades that the middle-class ridership is strongly increasing, the segment of the population that most use the bus system are those who use it as a necessity not as a luxury. Those that depend on the bus for survival. The bus gets them to their jobs, to the market, and takes them everywhere, anywhere, they need to go-- and it is their only means of independent transportation. Bringing this back to in initial interview, I asked the interviewee, "what has been something of significance for you when taking the bus?" The response was very fascinating and unexpected, he said "I feel much more closely connected with my city." He elaborated on this by saying that often times if you just take the interstates and main thoroughfares across town, and don't wonder off into the side streets, north Nashville, and other parts of the city, you would be very blind to the harsh realities that face many people living within the city. The bus takes you everywhere, and depending on the route, often times into places you would never go on your own. At the main bus station you can see a segment of the population you would never know existed if you were not looking for them. This for me, really brought purpose to my project. To shed light on the men and women who would stay virtually invisible if you didn't go looking for them. Those that really are the backbones of our society. The men and women who start their day before daylight and finish it far after night falls. I hope this project can show how fortunate some of us are, and how we live in a very complex and diverse society.