It’s been three weeks since I last rode the bus (and three weeks since I met Tweety Bird). In that time, indeed probably in the last few days, there have been some minor street improvements on Kyrene. So minor that I haven’t even noticed them despite driving on the street everyday. Until this morning, because this morning it affected me.

I catch either the 65 or the 62 to campus from Kyrene and Bell de Mar. My last time here, the stop consisted of a concrete bench with the city of Tempe logo imprinted on the ends, the standard blue bus stop sign, and the northbound route schedules.

Today, this stop still had the concrete bench and blue bus stop sign, but 30’ to the south was a new concrete pad with the typical brown bus stop shading structure, a green metal bench, and the northbound route schedules, obviously moved from their prior location.

Suddenly a dilemma: if bench + blue sign + route schedule = bus stop, then when faced with two stops, each with two of the three physical cues of a stop, but each also missing one vital cue, which is the actual bus stop and where do I stand if I want to catch it?

It’s all a bit confusing. My best guess is that Valley Metro is shifting the stop slightly to the south for business entry reasons, but there is no on site visual confirmation of if this change is occurring and when it goes into effect. In the meantime, I chose the new south stop. The bus driver saw me, and stopped, but at the original stop. Clearly I chose wrong. When boarding, I mentioned the confusion resulting from inconsistent information. His reply: “this is where the bus stops, and this is where I stop.”