A trip on the bus by Tony Green

I was getting my car serviced on a Sunday a few months ago and since my wife was working I needed another way to pick up my car from the dealership once the maintenance was complete.  Then the thought came to mind, why not use the public bus?

Open seats on a public bus

As a child in growing in Philadelphia, as in many large cities, people depended on the public buses and subways to get from one place to another.   Now that live in the suburbs, which by nature is very spread out, having an automobile is almost a requirement to getting where you need to go.

At any rate, I checked on the Internet and found a bus route whose route happened to be within a block of my house which stopped within walking distance of the dealership. I walked to the bus stop well before the scheduled time of its arrival.  I would later discover as a result of reading the schedule incorrectly I missed a bus and had to wait another ½ hour until the next bus arrived.

Once I sat on the bus I remembered the annoyance of riding the bus from my childhood.

I recalled instances when passengers would get on the bus with large bags of what appeared to be junk. By the time the person hauled their gear onto the bus and paid their fare – almost five minutes had elapsed only to pick up one passenger.

Another thing which boggled my mind was, in my view, if I planned to take a bus I would make sure I know what the fare would be BEFORE I boarded. First you get the clueless look and after the bus driver would inform the prospective rider what the fare would be the person would gather what available change was in the various pockets of her jacket. I almost felt compelled to give the person a dollar to cover her fare just to get the damned bus moving.

Finally, during certain portions of the bus route which went through heavy traffic. What was the end result? The bus moved at a snail’s pace along the street which the pedestrians walking on the sidewalk made better progress.

Once I returned home in my newly serviced car, after having wasted half of the afternoon, I came to the conclusion driving may not be best way of commuting in all cases but in certain instances , especially this one, the public bus may not be the way to go either.