The hum of compassion: Justin Burke, the bus, and people from all walks of life

Justin Burke

Justin Burke about to board the route 28 bus at the Eastland Transportation Center

By Andre Phillips, a Davidson College Sustainability Scholar and 2024 Sustain Charlotte summer intern 

Key takeaways

    • The bus is a huge money-saver for people who are able to ride it, but there should be opportunities for people to learn how to ride the bus so they do not have to spend extra money on rideshare programs if they cannot drive
    • Misaligned schedules combined with low frequency causes significantly longer wait times and overall trip times of up to two and a half hours. 
    • CATS-Pass App should show bus delays further ahead of time so riders can plan their trips better instead of having such long wait times. The app should also display tickets as soon as they are purchased.
    • The bus is a vehicle of compassion and community, a place where people of all walks of life can get together to help each other get around. 

Justin Burke’s Story

The bus is a place for people of all walks of life to get together and get around. It isn’t just a “nice to have,” though it is a place where it is nice to have conversations that connect people. It isn’t just for certain groups, but for anyone from all walks of life, whether they are new to the area or have lived here into their old age; whether they can walk or use a wheelchair to get around. 

Justin Burke has walked through life in many different places, and even as another person. Before coming to North Carolina, he lived in Ithaca, New York, where he worked in the radio industry under the air-name Justin Wright. For 20 years on FM radio, Justin played tracks for everyone, including top 40, house, trance, and breakbeat. As Justin introduced himself, he joked, “They wouldn’t put this face on tv, but my voice…”  His 20 years of on-air experience continued to make itself heard as we started the interview, “Check check check, can you hear?” And as he announced that he lives “up off WT Harris near Hickory Grove Road” with a cadence familiar to anyone who’s ever listened to the radio. (Hear his voice for yourself by searching “justinontheradio” on SoundCloud).  

Before moving to Charlotte, Justin and his wife were small business owners in Wilmington. “We had everything,” he explained, speaking as if he only had a few moments before the music started again. “Last July, we lost our home, our car, and our business, all in the same month.” When their car broke down, Justin and his wife did not want to get it fixed, because they figured, “We’ll be in Charlotte; I can take public transportation.” 

Public transportation ended up working out for Justin, even becoming a great way to save money: “It might take a little bit longer to get to work. But ultimately, at the end of the day, what I spend per month to commute is significantly less than if I wasn’t taking the bus.” 

But Justin’s wife has to Uber to work in Pineville everyday, because she doesn’t know the system, and doesn’t know how to learn the system. “I mean, I figured it out,” Justin explained, flustered, “but I don’t trust my wife to have to figure it out, just because she has so much other stuff going on in her mind, this is a new city to her, and, you know, there’s not a way for her to really learn.” 

The family will be getting a new car soon, and his wife will not have to Uber anymore. But in the meantime, the cost of this learning curve will continue to be $40-45 per trip, which accumulates to about $850 a month.

Aside from the difficulty learning how to take the bus, one of the biggest issues Justin has encountered with the system is if he misses just one bus or if just one bus is late, he is suddenly very behind schedule. For example, in the morning, Justin has to take the 222 and 28 bus routes to get from WT Harris to South Park for work by 10:00AM. Most days, the 222 bus he takes to start his journey is late, so by the time he gets to the Eastland Transportation Center, the 28 bus has already left and he’ll have to wait an extra half an hour to continue his trip. 

His route getting back home from work in the evening is even more complicated, because the 222 and 28 bus routes do not run. (In fact, it was so complicated that I had to rewind the audio I recorded of him multiple times to get all the details of the route.) First, Justin takes the 30 bus from South Park to the light rail, then takes the light rail to 36 Street station, where he needs to catch the 3 bus. By the time he reaches the bus stop for the 3 bus, it has often already left so he has to wait over an hour for the next one. Because of the low frequency and misaligned bus schedules, Justin’s trip home takes two and a half hours. Everyday. 

At many points in the conversation, Justin and I connected over our shared interest in making music. While Justin would like to get back into making music, his way of getting around gets in the way of creating: “I mean, well I commute to work two and a half… hours each way on the bus… don’t have much free time.” Justin’s time on the radio taught him that anyone with a microphone in their hand has the opportunity to improve the world: “The coolest part of the job was being able to make a difference, just having that outlet, that medium” to make an impact. During his time hosting the morning show in Ithaca, New York, Justin put his words into action. Although he was temporarily living above the radio station, he felt the need to “think outside the box” and use his position on the morning show to help people. He ended up getting out of the studio box and into the community by running a food drive that collected tons of food. Learn more about Justin’s food drive. 

Even though the bus has gotten in the way of making music, it has been a way for Justin to get involved with the Charlotte community: “I will say that taking public transportation has really allowed me to meet some really really cool people… I go from my house to the bus and I meet people from all walks of life, and I’ve made friends with people from all walks of life. So it’s actually been very beneficial from that aspect.” Since he no longer has a microphone in his hand, riding the bus has become Justin’s way of making a difference. Any time he sees someone who seems to be down, he always makes sure to lift them up by talking to them, something that would be impossible to do if both were insulated by cars. 

Clearly, the bus has a potential for improving Charlotte’s community in a way that other modes of transportation cannot. But in order for the bus to reach more of the community, it has to be improved first. On the topic of making the bus an even better way of getting around, Justin had quite a few ideas. First, he believes there needs to be more frequent routes. He also recommends that the CATS-Pass app trip planning feature should display which buses are delayed at each destination further ahead of time, so people can plan their trip better. Another common issue Justin has with the CATS-Pass app is that his ticket often doesn’t show up after he buys it, so he has to hope the bus driver will trust him. He has called CATS about the problem, but they told him to let the driver know the issue he is having, which leaves Justin in a situation of uncertainty: “I gotta pray that I got a good driver that’s gonna understand I really did pay for it and let me on the bus.” 

The final recommendation Justin has is for CATS to consider ways that their system could support riders who cannot afford the bus fare: “You’ll see … people from all walks of life. You’ll see people who are businessmen, you’ll see people who are homeless, and if someone gets on the bus, and they are respectful to the driver, and they only have a little bit of money, don’t kick them off in the heat, let ‘em ride. Show compassion.”

Compassion is not a word you would ordinarily associate with the bus. But it should be. Afterall, the bus is a place where people get together to get around. Each of those people has energy, and energy is passion. Energy is always humming: getting around by vibrating from person to person. Compassion is how we make sure to share our energy in a hum that propels people towards positivity. It can be done, as Justin likes to say, with people from all walks of life. And the best way to encounter people from all walks of life is to actually go out and walk in the same space as them. The buzz of the bus is more than the bustle of getting around. The buzz of the bus is the hum of compassion: the vibration of people from all walks of life helping each other get along. 

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