It seems global warming is heating up with: storms of the century, floods of the millenia, unending heat waves and forest fires that keep on burning.  It’s therefore fashionable for Kanadoodle’s political leaders to talk about limiting greenhouse gas emissions.  For anyone unfamiliar with greenhouse gasses, it’s the noxious fumes that arise in the Chambers of Parliament and Legislatures when the members sit on their green padded seats and hurl hot air invective at each other about whether banning wienie roasts is the best way to lower global temperatures.

So far, the politicians seem to be outdoing themselves with clever plans to protect the planet.   Strip mining the ocean floor to provide the needed minerals for electric batteries so we can all continue to drive big trucks and SUVs is one favored solution.  Building mega housing projects with no parking spaces is another.  Bicycle lanes that disappear whenever there’s a narrowing of a road is always a winner.  Feeding cattle with pepto-bismol is a sure fire method of cutting down on greenfield gasses.  Of course everyone agrees that the world could be saved if we just got out of our cars and relied on public transportation.  It’s just that no one likes that idea.

I suppose if you’re in the BIG city, public transportation can be reasonably quick and efficient.  The downside is that most people in the BIG cities can only afford to buy monthly bus passes if they give up paying rent or buying food.  It’s a different experience in the smaller centers.  Just recently I decided to take a bus between two places where the distance could be traveled in one of those gas guzzling vehicles in about fifteen minutes.  I checked the on-line schedules for the bus stop closest to me.  That is fortuitously situated a mere half block from my humble hacienda – such proximity must be a favorable omen.  The on-line schedule indicated that there were two buses that almost went directly north to the destination – on a very convenient once every two hours basis.  I went to the bus stop well before the appointed time, and was still waiting long after.  I checked the schedule posted at the bus stop and discovered it didn’t agree with the on-line schedule.  At this point I had no idea where in the two hour cycle I might be.  A bus headed south, the opposite I needed, eventually arrived, so I asked when the north bus was coming.  The driver didn’t have a clue, but suggested I could ride on his bus until I got to the the last of the handy bus exchange areas where his trek south started.   He suggested  I could slip out and get a more regularly scheduled bus going north.  I took the chance, arrived at the bus exchange, crossed the street to the north route stop and looked at the schedule for the north bus.  It was slated to run every half an hour but, according to the schedule, it left five minutes before my bus arrived at the exchange.   Well, that only meant another 25 minute wait.  Unfortunately, the one I was waiting for was fifteen minutes late…  I finally boarded and was treated to a leisurely meander around the countryside before reaching my destination, just a little over two hours from the time I left home.   

Public transit anyone? 

TL:DR – A bus in the hand is worth two on the schedule.