Slow snow travel
A long distance is the one you are forced to travel when you’d rather be doing something else. There, my definition for today. Or, if you like, the explanation of how I spent the greater part of my afternoon.
The day dawned with great expectations. A storm moving in, school closures on the tally board and then disappointment. My board was not among the chosen; perhaps the translation of the weather forecast arrived too late to be of any use. I’ve since offered to “put that into English” for the next time. I girded my loins, donned my tuque and set off against a sea of unplowed roadway to catch my bus. It was on time, as if the inclement conditions were of no account. I did find it amusing to see students (headed to the private school across the road) turned away by a bus driver with a conscience. Even if they didn’t own radios, their school was still closed. All the extra cash at home probably went to the tuitions fees.
By noontime the “conditions” were far from improved, so the corporate call to close went out. By 13h30 we were free to return to our homes, with no penalty clause. I knew that crossing the city wouldn’t be anything like the movie “Speed”, and it wasn’t.
Let’s throw some distances out here. 18 kilometers is a fraction of a marathon, just over 40% for those who have to make life into a series of math problems. It also is a long distance, when the transit time is 130 minutes. We shouldn’t compare apples and oranges, but since travel by city bus does involve “down time”, where you are down by a bus stop waiting for the next part of the relay, I’m going to do it just the same, without shame.
The last Boston Marathon was won with a time of 135 minutes. My bus trip took 5 minutes less, but involved only 40% of the distance. If we throw in a couple of red lights for the sake of realism, and acknowledge that the woman with the baby stroller did get off quickly, the fudge factor says that my bus is 60% slower than a marathon runner. I think. Math has never been one of my stronger subjects, and the calculator just makes my lack of skill show up faster.
The reality is that my afternoon was spent, wet and cold, en route over a distance roughly the same as the trek between the CBC tower at Strathgartney and the university campus. I wouldn’t have walked that, either, but that’s a discussion for another day. Rapid Mass transit is a wonderful thing socially and environmentally, but it really doesn’t cut it on a snow day.
