It’s never a good thing when a nemesis you thought you had made peace with returns, and nearly kills you.
Back in my grad school days at the University of Maryland, I was dispatched to do a story on cuts in the MetroAccess program in the Washington, D.C. area. MetroAccess provides rides to the disabled who cannot use the bus/rail options provided by the area transit authority.
It should have been an easy story–interview a few users who would be inconvenienced by the cuts, a metro spokesperson defending the cuts, and get some video of the MetroAccess cars and buses. Before doing the story, and even that morning on my way to the interviews, I saw the vehicles everywhere.
As soon as I was looking for a few to get on tape for the story, they mysteriously disappeared from the streets. I spent a solid half an hour walking around downtown D.C. waiting for one of them to go by. Never happened. So I went to locations where they could be picking people up or dropping them off, such as complexes with multiple doctors offices that served the elderly/disabled. Again, nothing.
The professor serving as our assignment editor calls to tell me she has found the main MetroAccess compound in Maryland. The way she’s talking about it, it seems like she has contacted them and they are allowing me to come and get video. So I go there, get out my camera and start shooting. After about 15 minutes, a vanload of very official-looking people show up and come right towards me. They want to know who I am and what the bejeesus I am doing there.
I explain the phone call, after which I am asked to go inside and talk to their security people. They say they have no record of the call, and nobody remembers talking to the professor. After a short time of explaining my harmless intentions, they ask for my card and ask me to leave. I comply.
The second I got out of their parking lot I called the professor to ask why I was in yet another position to be detained while shooting a story. She says basically not to worry about it…and the story ends up being really lame anyway.
Fast forward to last week. I was crossing a street in D.C. with the light. There was a left turn lane that also had a green light, with the drivers expected to not plow over people utilizing the crosswalk. The driver of a MetroAccess bus pulls into the intersection, not even remotely seeing me. Good thing I was paying attention and could run a few steps to get out of his way. It was only then he made eye contact and sped away. Good thing I’m nimble; that would be a terrible way for my life to end.