MBTA Bus Route 96

On time. Nice heat in this small snow storm. Driver stopped without being beckoned, a nice pleasantry in today’s rude world.

To the nice man who drives the 96 bus in morning, you are the BEST. I pick up this bus near the starbucks on elm street and he is always so pleasant. This is around 8:50am. He is a safe driver and is so kind. He makes this route pleasant.
I used to ride the 66 bus and would pray for my life. I used to ride the 86 and did the same.
The 96 is a bit more easy going. The 96 at night is SO crowded. If you get on the bus at davis sq, any time around 5−7pm, just know that it will be crazy.
Luckily, my stop is just a few after the davis sq pickup, so that’s good.
But, there are some very surly bus drivers that I’ve come into contact with and they are a reason why I am removing a star. I’m also removing a star because the frequency this bus line runs is very poor. I expect around 8am and 9am that the bus should run much more than once every half hour, if that.
Ramp up the frequency, hire some friendlier drivers and you’ll receive that elusive 5 stars very soon.

Really it is between 2 – 4 stars so settling at 3 seems fair.
The morning route seems to be pretty predictable time wise. The afternoon/​evening, not so much.
Thankfully, the drivers rarely skip stops with people at them and just cruise by, even if they are late — which can stink for people who are waiting at further stops and behind schedule, but nice for those at the stop that may have been skipped (this is sadly common of MBTA bus drivers to just blow off stops with people at them, which is so wrong!)