Can no longer recommend the bus
Mar. 7th, 2014 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebWhen I found out my boss lives in my neighborhood, I realized I can no longer recommend commuting by bus.
It used to be a no-brainer. You could drive in rush-hour traffic, polluting the environment, putting wear and tear on your car, surrounded by people who are thinking "If only that person in front of me were dead, I could get to work two seconds earlier." Then park far away from your office and pay for the privilege.
Or take a shuttle bus for free, adding only your relatively miniscule weight to an already-running bus. The good ones used to run every 3-5 minutes, the terrible ones every 9-11 minutes. If you're at the very last stop before campus, you might not get picked up because the bus might be full, but you can just get on the next one.
Well, things have changed. The buses come less and less often. My shuttle was coming about once every 20 minutes which means if something happens to one bus, you might wait 40 minutes. Then it got discontinued. Now I take a city bus that comes every 20 minutes or so.
The buses take longer to get to campus. When they built up the old airport, they diverted the bus to wander all around that before heading downtown. (In the middle of the day, it's even worse, crossing the highway and going in a big circle and then crossing back to wander around the airport--check out the ugly spirograph in the middle of the map at the bottom of this page.)
Basically, if I want to be sure of getting to work on time, I have to leave an hour before I want to be there. I live 3.5 miles from my office. Coming home is better; I can often be home 45 minutes after quitting time. Unless I miss the good bus or--like today--the good bus never came, so I took the bus that drops me off a mile away from home. Then it's more like an hour and a half.
And this is after a couple of weeks of strategizing--if I go to the bus stop that's one stop earlier than the most convenient one, I'm less likely to have to stand during most of the ride home, plus there are two usable routes at that stop, so I just take whichever bus gets there first.
I mostly read during the commute, but sometimes my book isn't engrossing enough to keep me patient during the 15 minutes I'm walking to the stop and, today, the 24 minutes I was waiting at the stop, then the 15-minute ride and the 5- or 20-minute walk home. Many parts of the book are amazing (you will get excerpts soon), but I like a break from it sometimes.
Recipe of the Day
Mix and match heritages the American way with this Italian Ashkenazim creation, Nutella hamantaschen. Okay, I haven't tried it, but it sounds good and looks pretty. Feel free to make some and bring them to the next party we're both going to.
My sister's going to try making some, but I can't get to her place very easily these days (even though it doesn't require taking a bus).
It used to be a no-brainer. You could drive in rush-hour traffic, polluting the environment, putting wear and tear on your car, surrounded by people who are thinking "If only that person in front of me were dead, I could get to work two seconds earlier." Then park far away from your office and pay for the privilege.
Or take a shuttle bus for free, adding only your relatively miniscule weight to an already-running bus. The good ones used to run every 3-5 minutes, the terrible ones every 9-11 minutes. If you're at the very last stop before campus, you might not get picked up because the bus might be full, but you can just get on the next one.
Well, things have changed. The buses come less and less often. My shuttle was coming about once every 20 minutes which means if something happens to one bus, you might wait 40 minutes. Then it got discontinued. Now I take a city bus that comes every 20 minutes or so.
The buses take longer to get to campus. When they built up the old airport, they diverted the bus to wander all around that before heading downtown. (In the middle of the day, it's even worse, crossing the highway and going in a big circle and then crossing back to wander around the airport--check out the ugly spirograph in the middle of the map at the bottom of this page.)
Basically, if I want to be sure of getting to work on time, I have to leave an hour before I want to be there. I live 3.5 miles from my office. Coming home is better; I can often be home 45 minutes after quitting time. Unless I miss the good bus or--like today--the good bus never came, so I took the bus that drops me off a mile away from home. Then it's more like an hour and a half.
And this is after a couple of weeks of strategizing--if I go to the bus stop that's one stop earlier than the most convenient one, I'm less likely to have to stand during most of the ride home, plus there are two usable routes at that stop, so I just take whichever bus gets there first.
I mostly read during the commute, but sometimes my book isn't engrossing enough to keep me patient during the 15 minutes I'm walking to the stop and, today, the 24 minutes I was waiting at the stop, then the 15-minute ride and the 5- or 20-minute walk home. Many parts of the book are amazing (you will get excerpts soon), but I like a break from it sometimes.
Recipe of the Day
Mix and match heritages the American way with this Italian Ashkenazim creation, Nutella hamantaschen. Okay, I haven't tried it, but it sounds good and looks pretty. Feel free to make some and bring them to the next party we're both going to.
My sister's going to try making some, but I can't get to her place very easily these days (even though it doesn't require taking a bus).