Finding the shorter way home
It could be that I have too much time on my hands, but as a “rider” on a large mass transit system, I like finding shorter ways from A to B. After all, time is money. Or, in transitspeak, less time spent waiting for the next bus to come along after you’ve just missed the one you need because of any of a dozen unknown reasons. Transit systems don’t have time to tell you why the bus was late. Whatever. If you know the alternatives that exist, you can sometimes find a way to get to destination on time. The joy of living with a timetable (or a few dozen).
That’s why I’m surprised when I ride with the rest of the commuting world, and the driver knows only one way from here to there. Yes, I realize that the driver could probably figure out an alternative path, but it seems that familiarity breeds complacency. This road goes there, and it goes there every day, so why should one look for a new strategy to a solved puzzle. That’s it: the puzzle solving ability atrophies.
Showing someone else a faster route to get home is fun; it’s like when the elusive piece in the jigsaw is spotted by changing to the other side of the table. Patterns. If there’s a gridlock, why sit and wait for it to clear? Try taking that sidestreet, or the tunnel that you’ve driven past every day for years. It must go somewhere.
Note that this does not apply to any community with a single road. If you live, and work, and shop and party on Main Street, you’ve got the answer. For the rest of us, perhaps a cheap street map, or a bicycle ride that tries to avoid hills is the answer to the unposed question. After all, those streets were laid for some reason. Might it be to get you home just a little bit earlier tomorrow afternoon.
