HippoPress -- The Hippo -- Guide to Manchester and Nashua NH

Executive Director Dave Smith has held the top spot at the Manchester Transit Authority, established in 1973, for three years now and city fathers are finally pumping some money into the transit system — $1.02 million this year as opposed to $600,000 in 2000. Meanwhile, the MTA is about to switch gears from its summer focus on mass transit to its bigger job, getting the Queen City’s kids to school. (The MTA is one of a handful of bus services in the country that provides both public and school transportation.)

Add these things together and you get the perfect time for a test of the city’s mass-transit system, Hippo-style — as loosely borrowed from the format of the CBS reality series The Amazing Race.

On Friday, Aug. 12, the Hippo assembled its crack team of interns and gave them a mission: Get to five Manchester locations using only city buses, and wrap the whole adventure up in three hours. The locations were: Fisher Cats Ballpark, Catholic Medical Center, The Mall of New Hampshire, the Manchester Airport and, finally, the Hippo’s office at 49 Hollis Street. The four interns were divided into two teams and each team was equipped with a backpack of goodies and a bus schedule (available online at mtabus.org or at the MTA office at 110 Elm Street).

Dan Goodhue and Rebecca Fishow

12:40 p.m. — Catholic Medical Center

Becca: In the 19 years I’ve lived in Manchester, I’ve ridden on the bus once before this experiment. We’ve been equipped by our editor with all the essentials — a $10 bill, a bus schedule and map, water, disposable cameras and a package of delicious Fig Newtons for emergencies. After snapping a picture of Dan in front of CMC as proof of arrival, we sat at the stop and examined the schedule. At first we were a little confused, trying to figure out the fastest, cheapest route to our stops. Why doesn’t a bus go directly from the mall to the airport? How come buses don’t run past 5:30 p.m.? This all seemed pretty inconvenient to me.

Dan: We crossed the street to the empty bus stop and opened our Manchester Transit Authority bus schedule to plot our next move. At first view, the map looks like rainbow-colored spaghetti. I flipped it over to find 14 color-coded bus charts showing when and where the different routes stop. It overwhelmed me, as if I were back in high school reviewing lab directions. But, after closer inspection, the schedule became clearer, and we realized most of the bus lines converge at Elm and Wall streets or Veterans Park. The schedule said route 13 would arrive at 12:50 pm to take us to Elm Street

12:55 p.m. — Still waiting

Dan: I started to worry that we would miss our Mall of New Hampshire connection, which leaves Elm St. at 1 pm. The bus rolled up and without checking the sign above the windshield, we climbed in.

12:55 p.m. — Route??? (We don’t know, we’re really confused)

Becca: We were on a bus, which was good. It was just as I imagined it: a bored driver, big windows and dull-colored seats filled with a diverse group of people.

Dan: We grabbed a seat in the back, and looked around. I noticed a chart with the words “Route 6” at the top, another bus that runs the West Side. “Uh-oh,” I said, “we’re headed the wrong way.”

Becca: “Really?” I said. “Oh.” We are actually on the right bus; we just don’t know it yet. Heading toward Elm Street, over the Bridge Street Bridge, was one of the rare times I’ve felt that I have no control of my destiny, or rather, my destination.

Dan: On Elm Street and confused, we stepped out into the sun for our next bus.

1 p.m. — Stop at Wall Street and Elm

Dan: After jogging alongside a few idling buses, I noticed that the sign of the bus we just exited says “Route 12.” This means it was the one we need to “catch” for the Mall of New Hampshire. Sheepishly, we jumped back on and the driver explained that the buses change routes at the end of each line.

Becca: Because the driver let us back on without charge, we’d spent only $2 of our $10 allowance, and we were on the right path.

1:15ish p.m — Headed to the mall

Dan: The driver stepped on the brakes and our open knapsack toppled over, sending our water bottles rolling under the feet of a woman wearing a Dunkin’ Donuts uniform.

Becca: The bus ran through some residential areas I’ve never seen before, neighborhoods filled with small houses and condo developments, on Manchester’s south side.

1:18ish p.m. — Missed stop?

Dan: The Dunkin’ Donuts woman pulled the string to be let off and a loud buzzer went off up front for a few seconds. The driver kept going.

“Excuse me,” the doughnut lady said. “They usually let me off here. Please, I’d like to get off here.”

The bus driver finally switched her foot from the gas to the brake. She seemed annoyed at having to stop, but I can’t be sure.

1:20ish p.m. — Grouchy driver

Becca: Before the bus hit the mall, it drove around Wal-Mart. An older woman and a boy with Down Syndrome slowly carried their shopping bags onto the bus. They struggled to place their bags securely before finally sitting, leaving much of their belongings in the center isle. The bags were obviously in the way, and they moved them again when the increasingly impatient driver said, “You can’t leave those there.” Then, she scolded two young women who boarded, for not waving the bus down to indicate that they needed it.

1:38 p.m. — The Mall of NH

Dan: We hit the mall a few minutes late.

Becca: We waited about 15 minutes for the next bus. This time lapse was about as much mall as I can take before developing a nervous twitch.

2 p.m. — On the road again

Dan: We got picked up from the mall a few minutes late heading back downtown. Becca and I wanted to catch the bus to the airport that leaves from Elm Street at 2:25. I got the idea that we could hop off the bus near Union Street and S. Willow to catch the southbound bus on Brown Avenue, even though I don’t know south Manchester very well. Then we noticed a man, in a MTA shirt, named Moe who was training our driver. He explained that it’s much easier to catch the airport bus downtown. Since there is no bus that runs from the mall to the airport, he gave us free vouchers to transfer buses. Vouchers are a commonsensical policy that makes Manchester’s public transportation seem that much more friendly (not to mention it saved us $2 leaving us with $6 unspent.)

Becca: “Hey…hey you! Want some chicken? Anyone want some chicken!” an older gentleman sitting behind us asked, offering the entire bus a piece of his Burger King meal. Everybody graciously declined, but this bus seemed much more lively than the last couple. People chatted; some listened to our conversation with Moe. Interesting characters were everywhere, including an old man in a hat and glasses who stared vacantly at…stuff.

Dan: I asked Moe about the MTA’s efficiency; he clearly takes pride in the service he offers Manchester. “The MTA gets through all kinds of weather, like the mailman. People need to get to work,” Moe said.

Becca: A woman asked Moe about purchasing a student bus pass for her daughter. He happily assisted her.

Dan: Everyone on board knew Moe by name, and the fried-chicken guy seemed particularly fond of him. The riders appreciate his work.

2:30ish p.m. — Manchester airport

Becca: “You came all the way out here just to take a picture?” asked the driver, smoking a cigarette. We didn’t even leave the bus stop but since it’s the end of the line, we had to pay an additional $2 to board again. After giving a dollar to a young man who couldn’t find his fee, we had three bucks remaining. Go us.

3:10 p.m. — On our last legs

Dan: Having made it to the airport and back to the Canal Street station, we set off on foot to our last destination: Fisher Cats Stadium. The buses get no closer to the ballpark than the bus station, but the walk is very short. With time and money to spare, we make a pit stop at Powers Book Shop on Depot Street.

Becca: We hit up the Fisher Cat’s stadium, then walked the few blocks back to the Hippo office on Hollis Street. We made it back, slightly sweaty, slightly exhausted, just before our 4 p.m. deadline and were greeted by the other group of racers, who arrived only minutes earlier.

Final analysis

Becca: We began our journey naïve to the ways of public transportation, but $7, three hours, two water bottles and a handful of Fig Newtons later, we basically had it down. In general, Manchester’s bus system proved to be efficient and inexpensive.The buses are not glamorous but they work. However, improvements could be made. For instance, I would love to see buses run later into the night. Crazy as it sounds, some people have places to be after 5:30 p.m.

Dan: I was surprised by Manchester’s bus system. I had never ridden it, but it didn’t take long to overcome my newbie status. The schedule quickly became decipherable, and the drivers were informative enough to help us make our rounds effectively. The buses were a few minutes late more often than not. It takes a bit longer to get around on the buses than in one’s own car, but then again, we each paid a total of $3 to get to our four scattered destinations and with gas costing $2.5-something per gallon …

Abby Ashey and Jason Singer

12:48 p.m. — Mall of New Hampshire

Jason: Rob [Greene] drove my teammate Abby and me to the Mall of New Hampshire — our starting point for the race. Despite our pleadings, he marooned us in a parking lot as far away as possible from the Food Court where we needed to board our first bus at 12:55. After shouting a few obscenities at him, we went on our way.

Abby: As Rob drove out of sight you could see him shrug his shoulders and grin. He was probably thinking to himself, “those suckers” — after Jason demonstrated his potty mouth.

Jason: Abby briefly posed with a Filene’s mannequin to prove we reached the mall. After escaping the labyrinth of Filene’s we started running through the mall in an attempt to make the 12:55 bus. Despite quizzical looks from shoppers and Abby’s brief ode to the Limited Too, we arrived at the Food Court with one minute to spare. We congratulated ourselves, then took our places out front to await our bus.

Abby: I felt really bad for Jason because I was trying to control my window shopping, which would have turned into all-out shopping had Jason not told me to keep going. But I took one for the team (and went shopping the next day).

1:08 p.m. — Where’s the bus?

Jason: The bus still had not arrived and the oppressive humidity was smothering us. We decided to sit down inside at a table where we still had a clear view of the front of the mall. Abby joked, “Wouldn’t it be funny if the bus parked behind the wall so we couldn’t see it and then we just see it drive by?”

Sure enough, three minutes later our bus passed the front doors without stopping. I grabbed our knapsack, sprang from my seat, tore through the doors and ran after it.

I decided to try and cut it off some 400 yards or so down the parking lot. I slashed between cars like Walter Payton, bottles spilling out of my bag and Abby yelling, “Go, Jason! Go!” somewhere off in the distance.

I got close enough to the bus as it passed to attract the attention of some of its passengers. They ogled me, tapping their neighbors on the shoulders to point me out. I swear I even saw one man pull out a camera as the bus sped away.

Abby: What a crock! Who has a bus stop that isn’t visible to the public? What if it was sub-zero conditions and the bus still stopped behind the wall? Would they honestly expect people to sit outside waiting for its late arrival? A for effort, Jason.

1:37 p.m. — Exact change only, please

Jason: After I lay on the pavement for awhile to catch my breath and Abby collected my lost artifacts, we got on the next bus.

The fare was $2 [for two people, one way] but all we had is the $10 bill Rob gave us and a notification about The Exact Fare Policy, starting Sept. 1, 2003, that we hadn’t bothered to read. The driver told us that another bus would arrive in 30 minutes and to go inside and get change.

“No! Just give him the $10! We’re not waiting any longer here. I just want to get out of here!,” Abby said.

Agreeing that one hour at the mall was 60 minutes too long, I surrendered our $10 bill and we took our seats. We told everyone who had not yet boarded they could board on us, and a few even gave us their fare money. The bus pulled out and we finally began our journey.

Abby: I knew everyone was thinking that we were two of the dumbest tourists in the world. We had Jason chasing buses like a dog, then we had me insisting that we put the 10 bucks in the machine.

I asked the kind bus driver, who wouldn’t break my $10, “what’s the quickest way to get to the airport?”

“Call a cab,” he said.

Ha ha ha.

“Well,” I told him, “We can’t, we have to take the buses.”

He told us to stay on his bus until he dropped off at Veterans Park [on Elm Street] and there we could pick up the Goffs Falls bus at 2:25.

2:10 p.m. — Downtown Manchester

Jason: We arrived at Veterans Park where our driver told Abby and me to sit and wait. He said we could pick up the 2:25 bus to the airport from there, and finally reach our first destination.

Abby: We had great faith in his assistance.

2:35 p.m. — Where’s the bus, II

Jason: Four buses passed, none went to the airport and none was the one our driver told us to board. We asked another bus driver if our bus was coming and she told us that our bus boarded on the other side of the street. Our first driver was wrong. What a horrid transit system.

Brenda was the helpful driver’s name but she couldn’t give us the name of the first guy. We thanked her and went on our not-so-merry way.

P.S. I was livid.

We crossed the street and picked up the Goffs Falls bus to the airport. Dejected and frustrated with the previous bus driver for usurping our money and time, we slumped down in our seats.

3:02 p.m. — Flying now

We finally arrived at our first destination — the Manchester Airport. The bus driver snapped a quick photo of us, and we re-boarded the sorry excuse for a vehicle for a trip back downtown.

Abby: I was really excited that the driver was nice enough to stop the bus, get off to take a picture and let us reboard. That saved us sooo much time, it’s unbelievable.

The thing about this trip that made me so angry was that the only way to get to the airport from anywhere in Manchester was to go downtown. Jason and I had to do some major backtracking. We probably could have walked to the airport from the mall in the amount of time it took us to get to the airport using only buses.

3:25 p.m. — Fisher Cats to CMC

Jason: After unloading back at Veterans Park, we boarded yet another bus that took us immediately to the Fisher Cats stadium. A passerby photographed us in front of the ticket booth and we reclaimed our bus seats to head out for the Catholic Medical Center.

3:45 p.m. — Home stretch

Jason: I breathed a sigh of relief as we exited the bus at our last difficult destination, CMC. We took a picture — the first time I’ve ever smiled upon arriving at the hospital — and forged ahead toward the Bridge Street Bridge and the Hippo office on Hollis Street.

Abby: It felt so damn good to know that we reached each of our destinations and I didn’t even care who won, just as long as we were done. It was the longest day ever!

4 p.m.

Jason: We entered Rob’s office with meager smiles just before the other team arrived. I would love to know how the other team didn’t have a bad experience because that’s all we had, up until 2:30. It took us an hour and a half to reach the airport — that’s horrible. We definitely could have walked there in about a half an hour at the most.

Final analysis

Jason: Following a photo shoot, we finally got to leave for home. I hugged everybody including the unsuspecting, horrified photographer and set out for home in my car. My car, my own mode of transportation. God bless General Motors.

Abby: This was the perfect way to end our time at the Hippo. Even though the transit system was a little trying at times, we had a lot of fun. And I got to know people that I probably would have never known.