Catch 22

I'm a big fan of public transit. I think that we should all use it. We should have rail! More trains! More buses! Fewer cars! More personal interaction. I think that the car/highway system is arguably one of the worst things to happen to American culture. That combined with our culture of rugged individualism turned us into the bunch of fuck-you cowboys that we are today.

Boston is trying to kill my love for public transit. The MBTA hates people. Take, for example, when I tried to go to work on Friday. To get on a bus at Forest Hills, you need one of two things: cash, or a weekly pass. Lacking cash due to an oversight, I simply figured that I'd get some cash out of the ATM, break it up by buying a bottle of water or something, then get on my bus with time to spare.
Unfortunately, the ATM at Forest Hills doesn't work. Bummer. I'm staring at my bus, which is going to leave in about two minutes, a bus that if missed will mean that I get to work half an hour late, and I can't find any way to get cash. So I go to the "Charlie Card" terminals, thinking that there *must* be some option there to allow me to get a pass so that I can ride the bus. I even go so far as to consider purchasing a weekly pass, just so that I can ride the bus on Friday. Unfortunately, the machine doesn't let you buy this week's pass, you can only buy next week's.
There is literally no way that I could get on that bus legitimately.
To rub some salt in the wound, I have a Charlie Card that'll work fine on the subway. So I tried to feign innocence and get on the bus with that. The driver says "those don't work on this bus." So I'll have to get cash? Yep. But the ATM doesn't work, how am I supposed to get cash? I dunno, what do you want me to do? All I'm saying is that I would love to pay you to get on this bus, but I have no way of doing that.
So she let me ride the bus for free, after I swore that I'd try to remember to bring cash from now on.
I'm just going to ride my bike from here on out. Seriously, folks. You can't even pay the MBTA to ride their buses.

Latiflearned.com doesn't talk about buses at all.