The Forrest Gump of Transportation
F
Adapted from a story by David Millhouser
orrest Gump was one of my heroes in part because I respect folks smarter than me, and also because he appeared to experience and influence so much American history. What a guy… heroic when necessary, and while not an intellectual giant, he was courageous without swagger and wise without being glib… Gump seemed to meet
every historic figure, and always had a positive effect on everyone around him. It was a crushing blow when I discovered he was a fictional character. Has it occurred to you that the motor bus industry is a bit like Forrest? Since the 1914 WWI Battle of the Marne, when the French used 600 taxis to rush troops to the front and save Paris from a German onslaught, there have been few significant events in Western Civilization that haven’t involved buses. This may be stretching a bit, but back then taxis and buses were sort of overlapping technologies, and they stuffed more than 8 soldiers in each vehicle. That ain’t a cab, it’s a minibus. When improving roads made it possible, buses became active in virtually every event that has impacted society. We moved troops during wartime. We contributed mightily to the Civil Rights Movement which had its symbolic beginning in a Montgomery, AL transit bus. Many who heard Martin Luther King Jr’s transformative “Dream” speech got there by bus.
14
The Freedom Riders rode Greyhound 4104s and the Negro baseball leagues traveled by bus, as did the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. When a hurricane is imminent do they bring in fleets of trains? Nah … buses. During 9/11 airplanes were grounded, but buses carried on. Name a significant sporting or entertainment event that doesn’t have a lot of folks arriving by bus. Imagine any city without a transit system. Many have “light rail”, but those jewels lack the ability to adapt to changing demographics. If folks move, trains can’t follow, but buses just take to the road. Most of us rode to school in a bus, many commute to work on buses, and pilots often get to their planes by bus. Good grief, if buses disappear we’d have no casinos.