Making do with less
The city has announced another round of compressions in the public transit budget. For those of you, alone in your bubble-car, this means little. For the rest of us, not the news that improves the day.
During “rush hour” (my bus time), there are no extra buses. They’re all either full or heading off to get full. Efficient use of the budget envelope. And when my bus and a small car tried to occupy the same space while turning a corner, our progress halted.
The deal is that the driver of a bus can’t simply pretend that nothing happened. There are supervisors to call and papers to complete. We (the passengers) were advised to leave our vehicle and make other travel plans.
Happily, my run started at a terminus, and there was another bus following. Two vehicles, on one route? There was a rational explanation – a lot of people heading in the same direction. The driver of the second bus blocked two lanes of traffic and welcomed us into his space. Carry on.
Let’s get back to that “two vehicles for a reason”. The bus continued to fill, as we made our merry way along. By halfway, the driver simply opened the rear doors and invited passengers to climb on board (first time in my lifetime that I’ve seen such a lackadaisical approach to collecting fares). The “ride” grew softer, as the tires compressed (we were running at double load) and each stop required a dance of unload and reload. The lad with the cricket bat (visiting from the subcontinent) may have felt right at home.
I’m fortunate; my stop was long enough that I didn’t have to play “mosh pit surfer” to get out.
