Personal Blog #2: The Wonderful World of Trax

Though it is nice to drive my car instead of walking to the Trax (especially as of late due to the dropping temperature), I am a poor college student and I don't want to spend all my money filling up my car. Luckily, once the wait in the chilly weather is over and the public transportation has arrived, it is almost always an interesting experience. There are a wide variety of people who ride the Trax which can create some very interesting situations.

Recently when I was coming back to the U a very interesting man sat down in a nearby seat. Most of the seats were filled and the man started talking, but not directing his words at anybody. He talked about a movie idea he had called "The Quiet", where women would kill men. He didn't elaborate, and none of the other patrons seemed to mind. At the next stop, he realized he was indeed on a university train and not a Sandy one. He got very angry and started yelling profanities, and many riders seemed uncomfortable at what he was doing. He finally got off, punched the window, and pointed at a random rider until the train finally departed. Everyone was quite relieved he had gotten off.

This was by far the most interesting I have had on the Trax in my first few months of living in Salt Lake, but my rides are rarely boring. Whether it is a homeless man randomly starting to talk about how he is Jesus, an intoxicated man rambling on to a few high schoolers, or simply having a conversation with the strangers sitting nearby, there is always something to occupy my attention when I don't have my ipod.

The Trax is also great at showing how diverse the population of Salt Lake City is. People from every part of society ride Trax. Business people, packs of teenagers, families with crying children, homeless people, and college students all ride Trax to get where they need to go, and it's interesting to see how people communicate with the strangers that they meet.

-A.J. Anderson