Whew - what a ride! Arranged to meet a friend for coffee at 7:30am today at Einstein's on the corner of University and Rural - right on the bus path. Both the 5:57am and 6:42am 81N, take about 15 minutes to go from my stop to this location - taking the 7:12am to arrive by 7:30am seemed like simple math, eh? Well, not today.For openers, the bus arrived 7 minutes late, reducing my on-time margin to 11 minutes - not a good sign. When I got on the bus, I literally took the last available seat - right front, next to a young woman with one of those bookbags-on-wheels (alarming objects, but that's for another time). We then proceeded north and stopped at virtually every stop between hither and yon. McClintock High School, re-opened after the holiday break, accounted for some of the passenger density; however, even after those school kids unloaded, passengers continued to join us as we crawled - and I seriously mean crawled - along McClintock toward University. Road repair currently allows only two open lanes on McClintock, woefully insufficient for morning traffic volume. The bad planning award goes to the bus stop pullout at Apache and McClintock. Located right next to the intersection, if the bus stops there, pulling out becomes a huge challenge. Rush hour drivers feel no need to let the bus enter the traffic flow and we waited two full light changes before the driver could nudge the bus into the go ahead lane.
My friend doesn't play the cell phone game so I couldn't advise him of my delay. I sat there, amazed at the naivety that led me to think taking the 7:12 allowed plenty of time. I arrived for coffee at 7:52am. My friend knew I would arrive by bus and assumed, correctly, that traffic created my delay. I guess, though, the bad planning award really belongs to me.
2 comments:
More recent thinking over here is not to have "pullins" at bus stops on main roads, simply because it is so difficult to get back out...
In some places they're even building bus stops out from the kerb to prevent selfish motorists parking on them...also acts as traffic calming by restricting the width of the carriageway...
The downside is the moronic motorists who pull up behind a bus on the stop and step on the horn until it moves off...
I get your comment about the roadworks (the "authorities" always seem to pick a good time to do it eh?) but doesn't the timetable (or schedule) allow extra time for the journey at peak times anyway?
It seems some wiggle room must be included in the time allowed to accomplish the route during rush hour - why else would we sit in a holding pattern if we're running ahead, which happens occasionally during rush hour. One good accident, though, can screw up the best padded plans. And then if you add fare-box dilemmas, and on and on and on.
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